Velveteen Rabbits and Studded Belts
by Zephyras
Summary: As a twenty year old single mother, Kuchiki Rukia knew she would not be welcome in the relatively small town of Karakura. And that was how -and where- the whole mess began. Ichigo/Rukia. AU, Modern.
1. Whore

"_Whore," _thought people in the street as she passed.

"_Whore," _thought her past five landlords when they first met.

"_Whore," _thought the doctors, even the one who helped with the delivery.

"_Whore," _thought the married women as she passed them in the grocery store.

"_Whore," _thought the business men on their way to work.

"_Whore," _thought the college students with upturned noses.

"_Whore," _thought the children who were old enough to know what the word meant.

And to make matters worse, Rukia knew they were right.

Velveteen Rabbits and Studded Belts-

Chapter One-

Kuchiki Rukia leaned against the window of the train and tried to feign sleep, all too aware of the stares she was receiving. She shifted restlessly and adjusted her baby into a more comfortable position, gently brushing soft black locks of hair out of his closed eyes. She closed her eyes again and the whispers started once more.

This would be the seventh time she had moved in her life. The first time had been more than fifteen years ago and the last six times had all been in the past year. Most of the time it had been to find a better job, but some of the time it had been because she felt she could no longer stay.

She had run away more than a year and a half ago, but somehow she didn't regret it. Sure, she missed all her old friends -the only one she kept in contact with was Renji- but it felt good to get away. It was certainly harder than living as nicely as she used to, but…

She was going to Karakura now, a relatively small town in northern Kyushu. It was just small enough to escape the average person's notice, but large enough to entertain the possibility of finding a decent paying job. Its distance from Osaka was also a factor.

The train stopped and the doors opened, a mechanical voice calling out the name of Karakura. Rukia adjusted her dress, grabbed her backpack and bag, and hoisted her still sleeping baby into her arms. She exited the train and walked quickly into the train station. Rukia made her way to the downtown area and spent the next few hours looking for a cheap apartment. She looked at five, took a lunch break, and then looked at another two. Just when panic was starting to set in, she came across a rundown looking complex.

"How much is rent?" she asked the clerk at the front desk.

He stared at her, eyes going automatically between her face and her child who had grabbed onto her hair and was giggling.

"Shh, Kito," she said.

"Well…We have different sizes, but…" he said and named the lowest price range she had come across in a while.

"May I see the cheapest apartment?" she demanded, not bothering to mince her words.

The man nodded, still slightly dazed.

The apartment was, well…decent. It had two and a half small rooms; a kitchen, bedroom and a bathroom with a shower. The floor was made out of cheap, dust-covered wood and it had a slightly moldy scent to it, but it was good enough. It was still close to the downtown area and there was an outpatient clinic across from it, which Rukia liked.

"I'll take it," she said decisively.

"Er…may I see an I.D.?" he asked and Rukia scowled.

She really shouldn't have. She should be used to people thinking that she was underage because of her height.

After all the formalities were through, Rukia dropped her things in her new apartment and slide down against the wall into the dust.

Kito let out a sneeze, and the corners of her lips twitched. She took out her worn cell phone and sighed.

"Rukia! Did you find an apartment?" was what Renji answered his phone with.

"Yeah, though I'll probably be cleaning it for the next two years," she replied, absentmindedly rubbing the dusty floor with her fingers, "Though at least it has a fridge."

She heard Renji sigh at the other end, "Are you sure you don't need any help?" he asked hesitantly, "I mean, I would be happy to send you something, if you-"

"I'm fine," she said, "Really, Renji. I just have to find a job and I'll be okay. This apartment is cheaper than I calculated for, so I might even have extra money."

He snorted, and Rukia almost smiled.

"Howabout, Kito?" he asked next, "Is he…"

"No," Rukia said, tiredly, "He makes noises, but he hasn't said a word yet."

It was a subject that plagued her constantly.

"I'm sure it's all right," Renji assured her, "Maybe he's just a late bloomer."

"He should be talking by now," she muttered, more to herself than anything, "Should have been talking months ago."

"He walks though," Renji said, "That's a good sign, eh?"

"Yeah," she said, trying to be optimistic, "It is."

There was a pause and Rukia opened her mouth to say goodbye.

"He's worried about you, you know," Renji said quietly.

"Renji, I don't want to talk about thi-"

"Rukia, he'll find out eventually! What's the point of prolonging it?"

"He wouldn't be worried, if he knew," Rukia said angrily, causing Kito to look up quizzically at her, "He'd be ashamed of me," she let out a laugh, "More ashamed of me, really, though that hardly seems possible."

"You know that's not true," Renji replied, "He's your _brother_, why would-"

'Brother-in-law," she corrected, "And my sister's been dead for years. Why should he care?"

"Rukia, if you don't tell him-"

"Don't you dare!" she hissed, tensing up, "You promised, Renji, you promised that you wouldn't say a wor-"

"I know!" he said, cutting her off, "I won't tell him! I was going to say that you're going to make things harder than they already are!"

"Oh, joy," she said sarcastically, "Just what I need."

"Rukia…" he said exasperatedly.

"Renji, it's no good," she said, "I've always been too wild for him. You know how he is. He'd be furious if he knew I've had pre-martial sex, much less had a child out of wedlock. I've told you this before, Renji," she said almost sadly, "I don't even know who Kito's father _is_. There's no way I can face him after that."

"He's not all that bad, Rukia! Give him a chance. He'll forgive you eventua-"

"Bullshit."

"Rukia…"

"Look, Renji, I need to go," she said coldly, "I have to find a job."

"Wait, Ruki-"

She hung up.

"We don't need him," she said bringing Kito up to her face so that they touched noses, "Hmm? You don't want to meet nasty old Byakuya anyway, do you?"

Kito blinked solemnly at her.

"Oh, not you too," she muttered.

She stretched and rotated her neck until it cracked. She opened all the cabinets and found a phonebook.

"Alright," she said putting it down on the counter, "Babysitting services…"

She jotted a few numbers and addresses down and set on calling a few places. The first woman sounded nice, but admitted that she already had five children that she was looking after. That wouldn't do. The second turned out to be fourteen and though she had recently been one herself, Rukia would rather not have a teenager looking after her only child. The third was a middle-aged woman with no children of her own who seemed quite happy at the prospect of taking care of Kito. Rukia asked tentatively if the woman was busy at the moment and if she could drop Kito off now. She excitedly replied that she'd be happy to have him. Rukia smiled and after a brief look at a map of the city, took a bus to the closest stop to her house.

The woman, who introduced herself as Kotetsu Isane, stared at her at first, and then seemed to remember her manners and introduced herself. Her small house was immaculately clean to the point that Rukia was worried how she would react if Kito made a mess. After twenty minutes and a cup of coffee, however, Rukia was convinced that she meant well and made to leave.

"Are you sure he'll be alright?" Kotetsu asked worriedly, "Does he tend to cry if you leave him alone with someone he doesn't know?"

Rukia turned and looked down at her small child whom she was secretly glad looked so much like her.

"Oh, no!" she replied with a fake smile, "He'll be fine!"

After all, he was used to it by now.

Rukia went back to her new apartment and spent the next few hours sweeping and scrubbing the floor. She unpacked some worn sheets and a blanket and fitted them onto the western style bed that had been left in the bedroom. Then, with the money she had obtained by selling her previous furniture, she bought a rickety table, two mismatched chairs and a booster seat for Kito. She scrubbed the plastic dishes she had brought with her and then went grocery shopping, buying a large bag of white rice, some white miso, a few packages of udon and curry, and as much fresh fruit and vegetables as she could afford.

Exhausted, Rukia scouted out jobs. Restaurants, particularly sit-down ones, were where she had the best luck. Her boss couldn't breathe down her neck and the pay was usually decent. She found a slightly ragged looking café only a stop away from her apartment on the bus that had a sign that stated 'Servers Wanted.' She smiled and applied, only slightly taken aback by the manager/owner who was unshaven and wore a haori, geta, and a strange green and white hat.

Rukia knew that she should probably apply to other places, knowing her luck with such things, but she was too tired. Instead, she picked Kito up and made dinner in her newly cleaned apartment.

Kito dug in eagerly to his share of rice and curry, making soft sounds of delight. Rukia smiled faintly and she scrubbed his cheeks and hands clean afterwards.

"Such a dirty child," she muttered fondly and gave him a bath in the kitchen sink, despite his loud protests.

Rukia put him to bed at about nine and reluctantly called Renji again. She would have to apologize. She was being a stubborn fool and it wouldn't do to alienate the only friend she had left.

"Rukia?" he began hesitantly.

"I'm sorry," she began, "I shouldn't have hung up on you. I was just mad and…I took it out on you…"

"It's fine," he said, "I shouldn't have pried, I guess."

She gave an un-amused laugh, "I feel like such an idiot."

"How've you been?" he asked seriously, and almost sadly.

"I'm okay," she answered only a bit untruthfully, "Just…tired, really."

"That reminds me," Renji said, "I got a lot of stuff of yours in the mail. It's all…well, bills…"

"Oh, could you send them over, then?" she asked, "My current address is-"

"Look, Rukia, why don't you let me pay them for you. Please."

"What?! No, Renji, I couldn't possibly ask you to-"

"Please, Rukia. A gift, for your birthday or something?"

"My birthday was in January. It's almost July."

"I didn't get you a present."

"Well, to be fair, I didn't get you a present for your birthday either."

"Look, Rukia, _please_, just this once," he begged and she gave up at the weakness in his voice,

"Alright," she said, "Fine. But on the condition, you let me pay you back."

"Oh, c'mon, that's bull-"

"I pay you back or no deal."

"Fine, fine, you drive a hard bargain, boss."

"Don't call me that."

"You know you like it," he teased.

"Renji," she said softly, sinking down into one of the rickety chairs, "You know you're more of a brother to me than Byakuya ever could be, right?"

She heard him swallow on the other end, "I know."

The next few days, Rukia spent in total anxiety; waiting for a call from one of the places she applied to. She didn't get much sleep, though she wouldn't have even if she were relaxed. She had found out why her apartment was as cheap as it was. The clinic outside had ambulances _constantly _driving up to the front and Rukia was debating whether to actually spend money on some decent curtains. The ratty ones that covered the bedroom at the moment let light come through and she was sick of waking up to flashing red and blue lights.

Fortunately, she got a call from the first café she applied to and was set to work in a week. Her money was running out, so it was a welcome relief. It was good that she had gotten it so soon, because only two weeks later, summer began and all the stores were filled with wide-eyed high school students that tended to be more of a hindrance than a help.

Despite its obvious setbacks, Rukia was quite pleased with Karakura. It was much better than she ever expected. Maybe there was something to be said about small towns.

"Waitress!" a man called, signaling her over.

"What can I do for you?" Rukia said over the din. It was a Friday afternoon and there were a lot of businessmen in.

"Can we have five coffees, please?"

"Alright," Rukia said, scribbling the order on a pad of paper, "Anything else?"

"Can you join us?"

Rukia's head shot up and they all laughed. The suited men elbowed the one who had spoken jokingly. She hesitated.

"I'm sorry," Rukia said, "I'm not allowed to-"

"Oh, c'mon! Please!"

"I'm sorry," Rukia said, sincerely, "I'll go get your coffees."

She had almost forgot herself there. It scared her, how easy it would have been to go back to the person she once was. The person who wore cute clothes and makeup, and made eyes at boys as they walked past. Had she learned nothing? She left work that night disturbed, though she felt better changing out of her short skirted waitress uniform and into a loose sundress. She couldn't afford anything else and it was best she didn't attract any of _that _kind of attention again, or at least until Kito was grown.

It was six by the time she picked Kito up and she was halfway home before she realized that she needed to buy groceries. With no choice, she turned around and walked to a local supermarket store.

She hated shopping with Kito. Staying in any public place for an extended period of time, really. She hated the stares that people gave her. She found that the looks older women gave her were the worst. They turned their noses up at her and gave her disgusted looks as they stalked past her with their loaded shopping carts. She had grabbed package of the cheapest ramen and a bottle of juice when it happened.

Kito squirmed out of her grip and tottered over to a large assortment of candy on one of the shelves. He giggled and jabbed his finger with his limited motor skills.

"Shh…Kito," she said softly, "Maybe next time."

He made a whiny noise, grabbed onto a box and spilled its contents over the floor. Rukia swore, set him aside, and got on her hands and knees and began to place the candy bars back into the box.

"…can't even control her child…"

"…what a joke…"

Rukia clenched her teeth, but said nothing. She picked him up, and was about to leave, when she hesitated. One bar couldn't hurt. She could save it and give him a little piece every day…

Making her decision, Rukia grabbed a chocolate bar and purchased their food quickly. Walking back along the edge of the one-way street, she held Kito's hand tightly and straightened her back. She would not be ashamed. This was her life and how _dare_ they judge her. She smiled down at her son and he opened his mouth and shrieked with delight.

"Shhh," Rukia said, laughing a little, "Not so loud!"

He broke free of her grip and ran around in a circle in front of her playfully.

"Kito," she said, "C'mon now, hold my hand again."

He pouted and crossed his hands in front of his chest.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Kito…" she said ominously.

He shook his head vigorously.

She signed, crouched down next to him, and held out her hand.

"Will you hold my hand?" she said softly.

He smiled all of the sudden and grabbed onto it, giggling again.

Rukia stared. It was almost depressing that she didn't really understand him.

"Let's go a bit faster, okay?" she said. In order to hold onto him, she carried all the grocery bags in one hand and they were getting heavy.

Her apartment building was a mere block, of course, when the bags broke.

"Shit!" Rukia exclaimed, trying to stop some cans from rolling away. She righted the bottle of juice and wiped off an apple with the hem of her dress.

Kito began to cry, fat tears rolling down his round cheeks.

"Oh, Kito, don't. It'll be fine, I promise, just please, please don't cry…"

She snatched at more bruised vegetables and began throwing them back into an unbroken bag. Kito did not stop crying. Rukia was about to tear out her hair, when she was interrupted.

"Uh…do you want any help?"

She looked up to see a boy with the most convincing dye job she had ever set eyes upon. His hair was a stark orange -eyebrows too?- and he wore jeans and a tee-shirt with the local high school's logo on it. He was much taller than she was, but she could tell by one look that he was several years younger.

"Oh, the bags broke…and he just won't stop crying!"

The boy slung his bag over his shoulder, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Here," Rukia said without thinking, "You hold him."

"Wha- hey, lady, I-" he said as she picked her crying son up and practically shoved him in his arms.

He held Kito in front of him and looked at him if he were a small nuclear bomb.

"Fuck, why does this always happen to me?" Rukia muttered, still trying to clean up her groceries.

"Er…" the boy said conversationally.

Kito, who had quieted the second he had been thrust into the boy's arm, began to wail loudly again.

"Hey, lady, your kid's…"

"I'm not deaf!" she snapped, grabbing at a packet of ramen, "Try talking to him or something."

The orange haired boy muttered something unintelligible.

"Hey…uh, kid-"

"Kito," she cut in.

"Fine, Kito…umm…don't cry…?" he paused and then frowned, "Look, kid, hate to break it to you, but your crying isn't the nicest thing to listen to, so I'd quit while you're ahead."

Rukia was about to yell at him, when Kito actually stopped crying and tilted his head to the side cutely.

Oh, that was _so_ unfair.

She stuffed the last of the food back into an unbroken bag.

"Thanks," she muttered grudgingly, as he let Kito down, looking dazed. Probably that he had managed to do something worthwhile, she though acidly.

"No problem."

There was a pause.

"Are you, like, new around here or something?" he asked.

"Yes…" Rukia said defensively.

"You don't have to be so suspicious. I was just asking," he said, scowling at her.

"Hmph," said Rukia, who was starting the develop a slight grudge against the boy.

"Er…well, I better be going," he said, making toward the outpatient clinic.

"You're the owners of that clinic?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"Well, yeah, my dad is…" his eyes narrowed suspiciously, "What about it?"

"It's so noisy all the time. All those ambulances."

"Hey, lady, try living under it."

"Don't call me lady," Rukia said in annoyance.

He snorted, "What am I supposed to call you, then?"

"Kuchiki Rukia," she said in a disdainful manner that she'd learned from the master, "And you?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo."

Rukia blinked, and looked down at her shopping bag, in which, under a bunch of chives, sat a box of strawberries.

She began to laugh.

**A/N: Wow, this is my first Bleach fic! It's exciting, isn't it? Anyway, to clear a few things up:**

**One, I am not a single mother. So, please don't yell at me if I mess stuff up. In fact, do yell at me so I can fix it. Just bear that in mind while you're reading this.**

**Two, yes, Ichigo is underage. If that bothers you, then I suggest you don't read any further.**

**Three, Kito's father will not be part of this story. At all.**

**Four, I will not be writing any lemons. Sorry, if that disappoints you, but I'm really not comfortable writing them, and they would, well, suck. (There probably will be limes, though, if that makes you feel better…)**

**Five, for those of you who've never read any of my other stuff, I tend to update pretty slow, so please don't pester me about updating. **

**Also, I have a poll and a thing called Fic Status on my profile page that basically tells you how far I am along on the next chapter. **

**If you have any questions, don't hesitate to review! **


	2. Concurrence

Chapter Two-

"You know what?" Ichigo said after a while, "Shut up."

She didn't and kept on laughing. Ichigo scowled. What a bitch.

"Ah, that made my day," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. She picked up her grocery bags, intact and broken, "C'mon, Kito. Let's go."

Her young son; their age gap was too much for them to be siblings, stared at him with wide brown eyes as his mother pulled him away.

"Freak," Ichigo muttered, making his way to the door of the clinic.

"I heard that!" the woman said angrily, making a rude gesture at him.

"Shut up," Ichigo told her.

She laughed, "Have a nice life, kid!" she yelled and made her way into the apartment building across the street.

"Fucking hell," Ichigo muttered as he unlocked the door to his house, "Does that apartment complex _breed_ weirdos?"

He was, of course, referring to the child pornographer who had lived in the same apartment complex. He had been arrested over a year ago, but it still was the talk of the town. After all, it was the only remotely interesting thing that had happened in Karakura since the earthquake seven years ago.

"Oi, Ichi-nii!" Karin shouted the second he got in the door, "Some idiot bled all way from the sidewalk into the Examination Room. Otou-san wants you to help Yuzu and I clean it up!"

Well, except Karakura's insane rate of injury. Though that was hardly considered noticeable anymore.

When his moron of a father had moved here before Ichigo had been born, he had been worried how his practice was going to stay alive in such a small town (he had worked in Sendai previously. (1)) He needn't have worried. It seemed the residents of Karakura either constantly injured themselves or came in the dumbest reasons Ichigo had ever heard of in his life.

"Alright, alright," he groaned, "Where's the mop?"

Today was not a good day.

* * *

A week later, she received a message on her cell phone from Kito's babysitter.

"Ano…Kuchiki-san, this is Kotetsu Isane. I'm sorry to call you like this, with such late notice. But, you see, my husband…well, he just lost his job and so I have to get a real job now. I'm very, very, very sorry. But I won't be able to look after Kito anymore. So…umm…I'm really very sorry. Bye."

Rukia closed her eyes and deleted the message. She shut her cell phone and sat down at one of the mismatched chairs and let her head fall loudly against the kitchen table.

Kito looked up from his toys, startled at the loud noise.

"Fuck," Rukia hissed, slamming her fist against the worn table, "Fuck!"

It was a Wednesday night and she had no time to find another one. She was lucky enough that she had found someone who's price was as cheap as Kotetsu's.

Rukia swore again and took out the phonebook again. Who could she call at this short notice? It seemed that her luck was running out.

She called a bunch of numbers, but none of them a low enough price and could look after Kito after little warning. Rukia began to panic. What was she going to do? She couldn't just skive off work tomorrow; she'd be fired immediately.

Rukia brainstormed for ideas but nothing seemed to come. Halfway, through it all Kito fell asleep on the floor and so she had to put him to bed.

Rukia began to really panic. She paced up and down the length of her small apartment, arms wrapped around her shoulders tightly. She couldn't think of anything. She _just_ couldn't think of anything. What the hell was she going to do? She couldn't just _leave _Kito here all by himself all day. He was much too young and…oh, it was useless even thinking about it!

Suddenly, Rukia wanted to punch something. Punch something _hard_. She wanted to break something, to destroy, and get rid of all her anger at the world and how _unfair _everything was. She was too young- _too young_- to be a mother. She was too young to be working like this and have this much stress in her life.

She had never had any role model for something like this. Her own parents had died when she was a baby and she only had pictures of them. Her sister, while she had been much older than her, had never pretended to be anything more than that. Byakuya was too rich and cold of a model to use while raising _her_ child. She was doing something wrong and she knew it. Had known it for ages. Why else would her child be incapable of speech?

Despair and anger filled her to the brim and Rukia wanted to let go. Let it all out and _scream_ and cry and be comforted…

But there was no one there to comfort her. There hadn't been since Hisana died and there wouldn't be ever again. She knew that. She _knew _that.

So she didn't do anything. She didn't let it all go, didn't scream, didn't cry. Didn't do anything at all. Instead, she closed her eyes and pretended everything was okay. She bottled it all up deep inside her so that no one, especially her son, would ever know. And that was alright. It was alright-_had_ to be alright. Because if it wasn't, she would break and everything would be even more ruined than it already was.

So, Rukia went to bed. She undressed and put her nightclothes in a zombie like fashion. She brushed her teeth and crawled onto the dirty twin sized mattress next to Kito. She closed her eyes and slept, dreams filled of uncertainties and things that were just implausible enough to fill a dream, but just real enough to apply to her everyday life.

She woke the next morning to Kito's whines and the ring of her 5am alarm. Horror filled her as she realized that last night was not a dream and that she had nowhere to leave her small son.

She frantically dressed, her hands shaking as she weighed her options.

She could call in sick. That would give her time to find a new babysitter and no one would suspect anything. On the other hand, she desperately needed that money for rent and food. Missing a day could ruin all her calculations of how much money she was allowed to spend.

Her other option; her _only _other option, was to bring Kito to work with her. If she was working any other job it would be out of the question, however, Urahara had a tendency to be exceptionally lenient regarding…well, anything.

…Alright, one of the other waitresses had disappeared with her boyfriend into the bathroom for a _long_ time and he never said a word. So, Rukia figured bringing Kito in couldn't be as bad as all that.

And the more she thought about it, the better it sounded. After all, she could leave him in the break room and check up on him in-between taking orders from tables and delivering food.

It would be risky, asking her boss something like that, but she would have to try. Kito himself would be fine as long as he had enough snacks and toys to play with.

"Alright, Kito," she said in a light, carefree voice, "Guess what? You're going to get to come to work with me today, okay?"

Kito merely rubbed his eyes and gave a large yawn. Rukia smiled sadly at this. Sometimes she wondered if he would be better off living with someone else…

She dressed him quickly, in too small pants and a lumpy t-shirt. He was still sleepy, like he was every day, and so Rukia picked him up and walked to the bus stop.

Karakura was just big enough to have their own public transportation system. Only just.

Sitting on the bus, somehow made everything worse. She became more nervous and jittery. For some reason, the lack of things to do made her second-guess herself. What if he said _no_? What would she do? What _could _she do?

Rukia bit her lip and closed her eyes for the rest of the trip, and tried not to think about it.

When the bus reached her stop, Rukia thought her heart was going to explode. She swallowed and exited the bus. Kito shifted sleepily in her arms and made a whining noise.

"Shhh," she whispered, "Just a bit further, Kito, alright?"

She unlocked the door and yawned. Turning on the lights, she went straight to the back room. She laid a blanket out on a corner of the couch and sat Kito on it. She pulled his worn stuffed rabbit out of her bag.

"Okay, Kito," she said gently, "I'm going to be working now, but I'll come back and visit you every so often, okay?"

Her son blinked and yawned, his long eyelashes falling against his cheek and then back up again in an effort to stay awake.

Rukia rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and set to work. It was her job to get the café ready in the morning, which was why she had to get up so early. It wasn't that she particularly liked the job, but she needed the money.

Rukia was sweeping the floor when Urahara walked in. He was unshaven (as usual) and tossed his smoldering cigarette onto an ashtrays on one of the tables.

"Rukia-chan!" he said cheerfully, "It's a beautiful morning, isn't it! Absolutely wonderful! Perfect weather for customers! …Hmmm…I was going to ask you something, but I seem to have forgotten…"

"Your sake is in the third cabinet to the left," Rukia said without looking up.

"Oh! You must be telepathic. Thank you!"

Rukia rolled her eyes. Freak.

"Oh, dear!" Urahara's voice came from the break room, "It appears we have an intruder!"

Fuck! She had forgotten to tell him about-

"Ah, Urahara-san, I can explain," she said, running into the room, "I just-I'm _so_ sorry- It's just that my babysitter just cancelled on me last night and I had nowhere to put him! I promise he won't cause any trouble, really. I just need a place to put him until I can get another sitter. And-"

"Hmmm…" Urahara said, tilting his head to get a better look at Kito, "He kind looks like you, doesn't you?"

Rukia blinked, thrown off track, "Er…yes?"

"Well, I'm going out back for a smoke. Bye-bye!" he said and waved over his shoulder as he went.

…if Rukia came across his stash of _crack_ one day, she wouldn't be surprised.

Everything seemed to get better after that. A few of the other workers obviously had doubts about her bringing Kito to work with her, but they didn't voice them.

Kito reacted surprisingly well to this new change of state. He watched in fascination as the customers came in and out, and after a while, many of the other waitresses began commenting on how adorable he was. Soon afterward, Rukia wasn't the only one who was constantly checking up on him.

"He's so _cute_," Hinamori, a fellow waitress, the only one in the whole place that was younger than she was said, "How do you get him to keep so quiet and well-behaved?"

"He doesn't talk yet," Rukia muttered, trying to keep her voice leveled.

"Really?" she frowned, "How old is he?"

"About a year and a half," Rukia said and wished a customer would come in so she could leave without seeming rude.

"Hmm…that's odd. But still, usually kids his age are so noisy, you know? Throwing tantrums and making messes."

Rukia blinked at her, unsure what to think. She had never thought that Kito was particularly special. But then again, she had never really been around other children his ages, so how was she to know?

"Really?" Rukia said casually.

"Definitely," the girl replied enthusiastically, "There are a pair of toddlers living next door to me and it's horrible! All they do is scream."

"Right," Rukia said and tried not to seem too pleased.

It also was strange, because suddenly there were a lot of people paying attention to her son, and subsequently, her. Rukia never really made any effort to make any friends within her jobs. After being on the move for so long, she found that it was just a waste of time. It was easier to just focus on doing her job and taking care of her son, instead of adding more drama to her life.

And so it was rather awkward when she went to check up on Kito and found him surrounded by a bunch of her colleagues. Mostly, because she had been dubbed unapproachable.

Still, a few of them were quite taken aback by the fact she was a mother, but most seemed surprisingly accepting. It was really only the older people who seemed to have a problem with it.

However, Rukia knew it couldn't last forever. Now, it wasn't because Kito was causing trouble, or because Urahara was getting fed up with him. It was all her. It was unprofessional that she bring her child to work everyday. She hated how they all looked at her with pity, and it was hard to concentrate on her job with worries about what Kito was doing in the break room ran through her head. She was too proud to keep this up, and so every night she searched for a new babysitter.

While Rukia had reluctantly made the decision to include teenagers into viable babysitter candidates, it unfortunately didn't seem to help. While most seemed to be eager to work, none that she found were willing to work as long and as many days as she did. Kotetsu really had been a gem; the woman had had no children of her own, so Rukia supposed babysitting Kito had been a dream come true.

On a Saturday afternoon after work, Rukia tied up the hem of her dress and scrubbed the floor again. She couldn't stand how dusty it was getting on her floor and after a few days of it constantly getting on her nerves, she decided to do something about it. Kito was taking his afternoon nap, so she was able work without interruption.

After she finished, she took out the trash, and threw it into the large dumpster in the back of the apartment complex. She walked around to the front and knocked into someone. Rukia fell over, and looked up to see the orange-haired boy again.

"Can't you watch where you're going?" she said angrily, getting to her feet.

"What the hell?" he replied, "That's my line!"

"Asshole," she growled, mostly to herself, "Are you following me around or something?"

"I. Live. Over. There." he snarled out, pointing across the street.

"Hmph," Rukia snorted, "Minor technicality. Shoo."

A vein in the boy's -what was his name again? Something to do with strawberries?- bulged, "Did you just 'shoo' me?"

Rukia raised an eyebrow disdainfully, "I believe I did."

"You're a bitch," he told her.

Rukia, who had been called much worse things than that, merely laughed and returned to her room, feeling inexplicably exhilarated.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it,) that would not be the last time she would run into the boy. About a week later after work, Rukia had bent down to adjust her sandal, and then looked up to find that Kito had disappeared from the space next to her.

She jerked around, maternal instinct already in full panic, thinking of kidnappers and yakuza (2), only to find that her son had merely wandered off a few meters. He now stood in front of the orange-haired boy from across the street, who was sitting on the pavement and looked like he was…polishing his bicycle? Maybe it was some weird small town thing. Kito giggled and grabbed onto one of the spokes.

"Shit!" the boy said with a start.

"Kito!" she said in annoyance, coming to stand next to him, "Come back here. You know better than to wander off like that-"

Her son wasn't listening however, and seemed to amuse himself by staring at the orange haired boy through the bicycle spokes. He jumped up and down twice, and then turned to smile at her, pointing at the boy's brightly colored hair.

"What the hell?" the boy said, nonplussed, "Why is he-"

Rukia scowled, "Never you mind…Kito, don't!"

Her baby had walked around the front wheel and was inspecting the rag the boy was holding with a surprising amount of scrutiny.

"Er…don't get to close, kid," the boy said, jerking the rag away and looking uncomfortable, "Inhaling fumes from this stuff is supposed to cause brain damage, you know."

"That explains so much," Rukia muttered before she could stop herself, making a grab for Kito, who dodged her hand and practically fell into the boy's lap.

He frowned at her, and righted her child almost involuntarily, "Don't you have anything better to do than to insult random people?" he said, oblivious to the fact that her son was now clinging to his upper arm and giggling madly.

"Don't you have anything better to do than polish your _bicycle_? Don't you have a job or something?" she retaliated bitterly, angry that he could do as he liked.

He laughed, "Believe me, lady, I _tried_. Unfortunately, I turned sixteen about three days ago; they don't like to hire anyone under sixteen around here and now all the jobs are pretty much taken."

Rukia snorted, "Couldn't have tried hard enough."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he said angrily, though Kito smiling happily next to him kind of ruined the effect, "What? You can give me a job or something?" he asked mockingly.

Suddenly, Rukia had a brilliant, beyond brilliant idea.

"You're crazy," he told her bluntly.

Rukia frowned, "What's the problem? You need a job and I need a babysitter. Or are you scared of small children or something?"

The boy glanced down at her son and scowled furiously, "Gahh! You know what? Fine! I'll take it!" and crossed his arms and proceeded to look incredibly sullen about that fact.

Rukia beamed at him. "So how much will I be getting out of this anyway?" the boy said, still looking unhappy.

"Cheap," he muttered when she told him her price.

"Not cheap," Rukia said calmly, "Poor."

The boy's scowl morphed into something else for a second, but then it was back on full force.

"Whatever," he said, and they both looked down at Kito for a second, who was playing with the chains on the boy's pants.

Rukia rolled her eyes.

"Tomorrow," she stated, pulling Kito with to his feet, "Fourth floor, room number 28. Be there at… seven," she said.

She could call another worker to take over morning duty for her. It would be worth it in the long run.

He glared at the early time, but made no comment.

"C'mon Kito," she said, leading him away, "You can stare at his hair all you like tomorrow, okay?"

"Bitch," he muttered with deep conviction.

Rukia laughed and gave him a brief jerk of her hand that might have been a wave. Maybe.

"I know, Kito," she said as they walk up the stairs, "I'm crazy. But we need this, right? And I guess you like him, you know? We'll just try it out. And I hope it works, but if it doesn't, we'll start over, alright?"

Kito merely yawned.

The boy, Ichigo, arrived the next morning wearing chainless shorts, a shirt with English on it that Rukia couldn't read, and a scowl. He had a bag over his shoulder and looked into her apartment apprehensively.

"You can come in," Rukia called over her shoulder, already turning to grab her bag with her uniform in it.

He did, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Okay," she said, rummaging in her bag to make sure everything was where it needed to be, "Food is in the fridge and the pantry over there, but Kito doesn't really eat a lot, so you should be okay. He's still sleeping, but his clothes and diapers are in the bedroom," she pointed, "Er…do you know how to change a diaper?"

"I have two sisters that are six years younger than me," he said, shrugging, "I'm good."

She blinked at the unexpected response. Strange kid.

"Anyway," she said decisively, "Ground lines."

He shifted uneasily.

"Okay, I don't really care where you go," she said, "You don't have to stay cooped up here all day. There's an extra key on the table you had better take, because most times I won't be here when you get here. So if you need to run some errands or go over to your house or something, that's fine."

He raised an eyebrow at her leniency.

"Just don't lose him," she said with a brief smile, "Though, I'm going to have to ask you not to have friends over or anything."

Ichigo snorted at the idea as if it was abhorrent to him. Rukia frowned. She was starting to have second thoughts about this kid. There was something _wrong _with him.

Well, whatever, she didn't have a choice now. It was too late to change her mind.

"My cell number's on the table, but try not to call me unless it's an emergency, okay?"

"Sure," he said.

"Right," Rukia said, making her way towards the door, "I'll be back at around 5:30."

"Right."

She gave him a small smile, "Thanks for doing this all of the sudden. I really appreciate it."

He laughed, "Not much else to do anyway."

* * *

The door shut and she was gone. Ichigo looked around the dingy apartment and scratched his head. Right. He could do this.

After a little exploration, he found there were only three rooms. A kitchen, a bathroom, and a bed room. Kuchiki's son, Kito, he thought his name was, was still asleep. Ichigo frowned. There was no railing on either side of the bed. He could fall off easily. Ichigo sighed and went back into the kitchen.

It was only because of the pure boredom he felt that he took this job. Mizuiro and Keigo were off vacationing in Beppu (3), though in this heat it almost seemed like a waste, Chad was visiting some relatives back in Mexico, and Tatsuki was off on some martial arts tournament. Again.

So Ichigo was left all alone with nothing to do, but to try and avoid his crazy father who seemed to think that he was depressed. He wasn't depressed, dammit! He was bored! Anyway, Ichigo had dealt with kids before, and he was quite damn good at it, not that he'd ever admit it (except when they cried, of course.) This would be a cinch, as long as he didn't get on the bad side of Kuchiki. Which was a lost cause if he ever saw one, but what the hell.

Ichigo regarded the rickety chair dubiously and after deciding that it _probably _wouldn't break, sat in it, opened his bag, and pulled out a magazine that he had borrowed from Tatsuki.

He was looking interestedly at a nice pair of nunchaku (4) when there was a tug on his shirt and he looked down into wide brown eyes.

"Hey, kid," Ichigo said, yawning and removing the boy's hand from his shirt, "You're mom's at work, just so you know. She'll be back later. Want some breakfast?"

Kito smiled at him, looking completely unperturbed at the fact that his mother was gone and he had woken up alone in the apartment with a total stranger.

Ichigo set down his magazine and opened the fridge. There was a container of leftover miso soup and some rice. Ichigo put them in the microwave for a minute, found some plastic dishes, and fed the kid with cheap looking chopsticks.

After Ichigo had cleaned him up (boy, he was messy!) Kito played around with his stuffed rabbit and toy truck on the floor. Ichigo finished the magazine twice over and looked around in a bored fashion. Kuchiki had no television nor any other source of amusement around. For a while, he joined the kid on the floor, rolling the toy truck across the room and watching the small boy run after it jubilantly, but predictably that got boring too.

Suddenly Ichigo had an idea.

"Hey, kid, wanna go to the park?"

(1) A city on the upper half or Honshuu; one of the fourteen biggest cities in Japan.

(2) Japanese equivalent of the Mafia.

(3) A city in Northern Kyushu known for it's eight hot springs.

(4) Commonly known as 'nun chucks.'

**A/N: Finally! Gah, you have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter…I was lazy first, then I got horrible writer's block…which, I countered by rereading half the manga **_**and **_**anime, which, needless to say, took a long time. So, sorry, for the wait.**

**Length prediction: I'd say about ten chapters maximum, but then again, who knows? The last fic I predicted to be ten chapters just hit twenty. Yeah. So don't be surprised if I suddenly come up with an amazing plot bunny and decide to incorporate it here.**

**Also, a few explanations. In the reviews, someone commented on the reason why Rukia gets so many odd looks. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear enough last chapter, so I'll reiterate: **

**Rukia looks a lot younger than she is. I'd guess most people would think she was about sixteen or seventeen by just looking at her. Also, in this fic, Karakura is supposed to be a close knit community, and a lot smaller than where Rukia's from. The population would tend to be more judgmental and conservative on issues like single motherhood. In Tokyo, people probably wouldn't look twice at someone like Rukia. **

**Anyway, if you have any questions or comments please review! **


	3. Evolution

Chapter Three-

And that was how it went. Ichigo started going over to Kuchiki's every morning and then wandered back to his own place later that afternoon. It wasn't really all as troublesome as he had expected it to be. Kito was not only a surprisingly easy child to take care of, but also seemed intent on being Ichigo's comic relief. The days went by fast and suddenly Ichigo looked at the calendar and realized that he had been working for Kuchiki for two weeks. It wasn't his ideal summer, but it could've been worse. Ichigo was content.

The same could not be said for Kuchiki. Every day he saw her she looked like she had been hit by a car. She had lost a lot of weight and there were dark circles under her eyes. She came back every evening pale and exhausted. Ichigo knew that her recently acquired night job was the cause of it all. She must have thought it was worth it, though. Suddenly, there were nicer toys for Kito, better food, ceramic dishes in the cabinets, a bed rail, dish towels, and a shower curtain in the bathroom. Ichigo also noticed that she seemed to be settling in more; none of her stuff was in boxes anymore and there were picture frames on one of the empty bookshelves. There was a cheap photograph of a younger Kito, one of the mother and child together, and then one of Kuchiki and a tall, red haired man whom Ichigo didn't recognize. The weirdest thing about the photo was that Kuchiki was wearing clothes that were really…quite slutty. It totally contrasted with the knee length dresses she wore now.

He also wondered at first if the man in the picture was Kito's father, but then decided it wasn't any of his business. And anyway, it wouldn't be like Kuchiki to have a photograph of Kito's father around when he obviously wasn't helping out.

On August first, the inevitable happened. At quarter to six, Ichigo heard the lock on the door click and saw the door open slowly. He opened his mouth to explain to her why she didn't see Kito (he was taking a nap in the other room,) but closed it at the sight of her face. She was slightly green and closed the door slowly, as if she were to go any faster she would break.

"I think," she said, breathing long and heavily, "I'm at my limit."

"Are you oka-" Ichigo started to ask.

Kuchiki slid down the door and Ichigo had to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Shit! Okay," Ichigo said, starting to panic, "I'm going to call-"

"Don't bother," she said, eyes still closed, "I just need to sit…for a second…"

He put his hand on her forehead. She didn't have a fever, but she was obviously in no condition to do anything except sleep for a very long time.

"Alright, here," he pulled her up by the underarms, "Can you walk?"

Kuchiki swayed and Ichigo took it as a loud, emphatic _no_.

He sort of walked her to the kitchen table and she fell into a chair.

"Fuck…" she swore, "I'm such a wreck."

"No kidding," Ichigo muttered, fixing her a glass of water, "You're going to kill yourself if you keep this up."

"Yeah…" she gave a shudder and then finally opened her eyes.

"Drink this," he said and thrust the glass of water towards her.

She raised her hand feebly and Ichigo saw immediately that she wouldn't be able to hold the glass.

"Man…" Ichigo said, holding it up to her lips, "How many hours did you sleep last night anyway? Or the past week?"

She didn't answer even after she had finished drinking and he frowned,

"Oi, Kuchiki!" he said shaking her.

"You can call me Rukia, you know," she muttered.

"Don't avoid the question."

"Two, three hours, maybe…"

"And the whole week?"

She didn't answer.

"Great," Ichigo hissed, "Just great."

"You don't have to stay here, you know," she said, sounding offended. Or at least as offended as a person barely conscious could sound.

"It is my _job_, you know," Ichigo said with a mock sigh.

She snorted and shook a little.

"You haven't been eating much, have you?" Ichigo asked disapprovingly.

"How the hell do you know all these things anyway?" she murmured softly.

"I do spend more than ten hours in your house every day," Ichigo said, opening the fridge, "I can tell when you haven't eaten anything. Now what do you want?"

"Not hungry," Kuchiki said weakly, "Just want to sleep."

"You should eat anyway," Ichigo said, looking through the contents of the refrigerator.

"If I eat anything, I think I'm going to throw up."

Ichigo scowled and closed the fridge.

"Where's Kito?" she asked.

"Taking a nap."

She groaned and fell silent. For a few minutes, Ichigo thought she had fallen asleep, but then she spoke again.

"You know what I miss?" she said so softly that Ichigo almost didn't hear her.

"Yeah?"

"Watermelon. I used to…used to eat it all the time in the summer, you know." she gave a snort. "Now I can't even afford it."

Ichigo had no idea what to say to this.

"I was such a stupid kid. Such a stupid, stupid…" She exhaled loudly. "Did I ever tell you why I'm living in this hole?"

The correct answer was no, but Ichigo knew that if he said that she'd tell him anyway. It wasn't that he wasn't curious, but more of the fact that Kuchiki was sick and might regret telling him later. Ichigo understood secrecy and the need for certain subjects never to be mentioned.

"Listen, Kuchi-I mean, Rukia, you don't have to-"

"My parents died when I was a baby and I lived with my older sister from then on. She was….a lot older than me and when I was ten, she got married. Married to some guy who was richer than fuck." She talked in a strange, flat tone, "I never really liked him, but they seemed to like each other. Soon afterwards, my sister was diagnosed with…leukemia and she died when I was twelve. Byakuya was technically my guardian, but he was always busy with his stupid business. I got into a bad crowd and there was no one at home to tell me no." She gave a weak laugh, "Rest is history…got pregnant at the desirable age of seventeen. Managed to hide it until I graduated high school and then left before Byakuya could call me a stain on the Kuchiki name." She opened an eye and looked blearily up at him. "Hey, how old are you again?"

"Sixteen," Ichigo said, trying not to blush, because somewhere in her monologue her dress got hiked up a _bit _too far.

She looked at him curiously for a few seconds and then closed her eyes. "Can I ask you to feed Kito dinner and put him to bed tonight? I'll pay you, of course-"

"No need," Ichigo said, waving off her offer.

"Sorry," she said.

"Ku-Rukia," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes, "I have nothing better to do. So spare me your apologies. And anyway, if I left now, you'd try to do it yourself, die, and then I'd be accused of third-degree murder."

Kuchiki gave a breathy laugh. "You're a strange kid," she murmured and drifted off.

Ichigo frowned. _"Is she fine just sleeping there?" _

For a second, he wondered if he should just move her to the bed, but immediately dismissed the idea. It would be weird since she was asleep and Ichigo didn't really want to go down that route, especially since her hem of her dress was still higher in her lap than Ichigo was really comfortable with.

Her cell phone rang and Ichigo glanced over at it. Closer inspection yielded that it was one of those prepaid phone and the caller-ID read 'Renji.' Ichigo didn't pick it up, but reminded himself to tell her that this Renji character called.

About an hour later Kito got up and was confused as to why his mother was passed out at the kitchen table. Ichigo tried to explain, failed, and then gave the brat dinner, which ended up being leftover yakisoba (1), bottled green tea, and dorayaki (2).

At about eight (Ichigo winced at the time and looked warily across the street) Kito finally fell asleep. Ichigo felt awkward about entering Kuchiki's bedroom, but put the boy to bed anyway.

He reentered the kitchen, pushed a pillow under Kuchiki's head, and draped a blanket over her, but still felt guilty about leaving her there.

Ichigo squared his shoulders and resolved that he would check in early the next morning. He sighed and headed down the steps of the apartment building. Now he had his psychotic father to deal with.

The next morning Ichigo unlocked the apartment door at six a.m. to find the chair Kuchiki had been sleeping in empty. Her purse was still on the counter, so he peeked into the bedroom to find that she moved there sometime during the night. Ichigo shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. He wasn't sure whether to wake her up and tell her that she should call in sick to work or to let her sleep. But if she didn't call in soon her boss could get mad…

Making his decision, Ichigo leaned down and shook her shoulder roughly, "Oi! Rukia!"

Her face contorted, but she merely groaned and pressed her face further into the pillow.

"Kuch-Rukia, you've gotta get up and call in sick."

Her eyes opened and she looked up at him confusedly for a few seconds. Then her eyes went wide and she jerked herself into a seated position with a strange look on her face. A second later it was gone.

"Oh, it's just you," Kuchiki said and her hands fell from their protective place around her shoulders, "Why did you wake me up?"

"It's quarter after six," Ichigo told her, "You should call in sick soon or…" he trailed off in horror.

Kuchiki had put on her pajamas; they consisted of checkered pants and a high-collared long sleeved-shirt, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Kuchiki had apparently forgotten to button the shirt up. And she wasn't wearing a bra. Ichigo whipped his head in the opposite direction, feeling a nasty red flush spread down his neck.

"What?" Kuchiki asked, sounding genuinely confused, "What are you…oh."

Ichigo wanted to sink through the floor.

She snorted with laughter, "What are you so embarrassed about? Are you a virgin or something? Oh, wait, this is Karakura, I forgot…"

Now, Ichigo _really_ wanted to sink through the floor.

* * *

"What are you doing?" he asked her in a suspicious tone, after she had buttoned up her shirt and had attempted to get out of bed.

"Going to work," she told him, "I'll be late, but hopefully I can-"

"You're kidding, right? You practically passed out yesterday!"

"That was yesterday," she answered, not looking at him.

"You're an idiot," he said bluntly, "I woke you up so you could call in sick (for last night, too) not so you could attempt to kill yourself _again_."

"What's it to you?" Rukia muttered, glaring.

He frowned and handed her the phone, "Now call."

"Ichigo," she started, "Really, I have to go t-"

"Not an option," he said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Rukia sighed, "You're really annoying, you know that?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I could say the same thing about you."

"Fine," she said angrily, "Fine."

The boy had the nerve to smirk at her.

"I'll get you for this," she muttered rebelliously, sagging back against the headboard of the bed.

He snorted, "I'd like to see you try."

Before Rukia could retort, Kito gave a sleepy moan next to her and turned over.

"Okay," she said, "Let's continue this conversation elsewhere."

"Wait," he said worriedly, "You probably shouldn't-"

"Not an option," she said mockingly, wincing at her feet touched the cold floor.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him forcibly out of the room. Entering the kitchen, Rukia had planned to go straight to the fridge, but the few steps had tired her out more than she knew was possible. She sunk into one of the chairs and inhaled deeply.

"Told you," the boy muttered, "I doubt you'd have even made it to the bus stop before you collapsed again."

"Ichigo?"

"Hm?"

"Shut up."

"Bitch. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Asshole. You know how to cook?"

"Sorta, I can make a few things."

"Rice? Miso soup?" she asked.

"Sure."

"The miso's in the fridge, and the rice is…"

"In the bottom cabinet all the way to the left. I did your shopping last week, you know."

"Shit. You did?"

"Are you losing your memory as well?" he asked, and she heard pots and pans being shuffled around.

"Maybe," she said humorlessly, "Why are you so insistent that I eat anyway?"

"I'm the kid of a doctor," Ichigo replied, "and you're a stick."

"Hmph. Rude."

"It's true. You're a bit old to be starving yourself, you know. When you're a kid, it's easier to revert back to your normal weight, but as you get older it's gets harder."

Rukia opened an eye to look at him, "You think I'm old?" she snickered, "That's a first. People usually think I'm seventeen or something."

Ichigo turned from where he was stirring a pot of rice, "Well, you're short, but your eyes and face look older."

The comment was so _rude_ that Rukia just had to laugh.

"What's so funny?" he asked narrowing his eyes, "Damn, you really need to get a rice cooker, this is such a pain."

"You wanna buy it, be my guest," she said, and then, just to be as rude back, "Hmm…have I ever told you that except for the hair you look remarkably like some married guy I slept with?"

"Wh-What!" his face went red and he gaped at her.

"Nah, I didn't sleep with him. Wanted to, but he was too nice of a guy to ever even _look_ at another woman."

"Er," Ichigo said.

"I know, _bastard_."

"Er," Ichigo said again.

She turned and smirked at him, "Sucker. I win."

"Huh? What are you…You know what? Shut up."

Ichigo was a strange kid, Rukia thought. He acted like an insensitive asshole, but she could tell that he wasn't really one. She should know; she used to date them all the time.

He constantly used medical jargon and was always saying things were unhygienic. He threw out her sponges on the first day calling them "full of germs" and "breeding grounds of disease."

The strangest thing was that he didn't seem to mind watching after a one and half year old for the most part of his day. He brought martial arts magazines some of the time, but otherwise seemed perfectly happy to amuse her child.

And maybe it was only because it had been so long since she had talked to anyone face to face, but she couldn't help but like him.

Sometimes, he would talk about his friends and school, but from what she gathered he wasn't really that close to any of them. A few were annoying, he said, and others had their own things going on. He didn't have a girlfriend, though once, he had mentioned a girl. A friend of a friend, who really liked him, but he said it made things awkward.

There was no more dialogue about his family either. He mentioned his father once in a while, whom he considered nosy and irritating. He had twin sisters that he talked about once or twice, but he never talked about his mother. Rukia wasn't sure whether it was because she was out of the picture or if she was simply not a noteworthy person.

His life seemed open and uncomplicated. He was not the most social of teenagers, hardly seeming to hang out with his friends, but wasn't particularly close to his family either. For some reason, Rukia found it interesting. As a teenager, her friends and boys had been her life. Being an only child and ignored by her guardian most of the time, they were the only people she had left to turn to. She couldn't help being envious of his apparent indifference.

He argued with her to reduce the hours that she worked, and Rukia couldn't help wonder why he gave a damn. He seemed totally content to help out more than just babysitting Kito and or just to talk (bicker) with her. Weeks went by and then it was mid-August and Rukia realized that Ichigo had been staying until nine or later and she couldn't imagine it being any other way.

"So let me get this straight," Renji said, sounding torn between amusement and annoyance, "This punk teenager has been babysitting Kito for over a month, and now you spend half your time not working hanging out with him?"

Rukia scowled, "Well, it sounds weird if you say it like _that_. And I'm not 'hanging out' with him. He's bored out of his mind and is being nice."

She was standing in the hallway outside of her apartment and tried not to talk to loudly because Ichigo was playing with Kito inside.

"Seriously," Renji said, "You should be more careful."

Rukia snorted, "Don't be such a worrywart. This is a really small town. I bet the kid's never even had a girlfriend before. Sometimes I think he's gay, as well."

"Rukia!"

"It's true. If you want to worry about anyone, worry about me. He's kind of cute, you know."

"_Rukia!_"

"Renji," she said rolling her eyes, "that was a joke. I'm not so desperate that I'd jump a sixteen year-old."

"Hmph," Renji said, sounding annoyed, "Anyway, what are you going to do after school starts? You don't have a lot of time, do you? My university starts again in less than three weeks."

"I've saved up a bunch for daycare," Rukia said, "All the money from my night job I've been saving. I found a pretty cheap one that doesn't look too bad. I've saved enough for six months of that, providing Ichigo can still baby-sit for me on weekends."

"The night job, huh?" Renji said, "The one that almost killed you?"

"_Renji_," she says exasperatedly, "That was one time! I won't make that mistake again."

"I'm worried about you, Rukia!" he said and certainly sounded like it, "When was the last time you had a day off? All this stress can't be good for you!"

Rukia knew he was right; she even hadn't had her period for months, but there was no way she was going to agree with him.

"I'm fine, Renji, I promise," she said, trying to sound sincere, "That time I was just too…optimistic about how many hours I could work. It won't happen again."

"Rukia, why don't you just ask for help? They have public assistance programs (3) for a reason!"

"You know I can't do that, Renji," she said; they had been over this many times, "It's already dangerous that I still pay the fees for health insurance(4)!"

"Rukia, you're overestimating his influence! There's no way Byakuya could access private information like that."

"I'm not overestimating anything. I guarantee if I got a real phone instead of a prepaid one, he'd be at my door by the end of the week!"

"Look, I know you don't want anything to do with him, okay? But at what cost?"

"I can manage fine on my own, really," Rukia said tiredly, "Besides, for insurance I can just lie about my address and have you mail my bills to me. For assistance, they actually have to come and look at my apartment. I don't want him finding out where I am!"

"Rukia, how long are you going to spend hiding? A year, two years?"

"Until Kito is old enough," Rukia said.

"When is that? When he goes into first grade? Graduates primary school? Middle school? _High_ school? You're not going to hide for eighteen years are you?"

"Sixteen and a half," Rukia corrected, "And I was thinking after he graduates middle school."

"You're serious?" Renji asked, sounding horrified, "That's thirteen and a half years from now! "

"I knew what I was getting into was I decided to have Kito, Renji," Rukia said seriously, "Child or not, I had to get away from him."

"I know," Renji said, sounding wistful, "I remember the time you ran away when you were fourteen. Camped at my place for a few weeks. You always did drive each other crazy."

"Yeah," Rukia said, throat tight.

"Rukia? Can I…visit you over New Year's? I would have come over the summer, but I needed to get a job to pay off the loans."

Rukia beamed and adjusted the phone, "Sure you can. I'm sure you'll get along with Kito famously."

"I had better go now," he said apologetically, "I have a date tonight…"

Rukia snorted, but felt a strange tightening in her chest, "Good luck."

"I'll call you later, I promise," he said, sounding a little guilty.

"'Kay, bye."

It wasn't like she was jealous, at least like _that_, anyway. It was just that…well, she had resigned herself to a single life, at least until Kito was older and they were more financially stable. But sometimes, she wished that there was someone for her. Which was stupid, because all the men she had ever gotten involved with were sleazy assholes, who didn't really like her anyway.

"Who was that?" Ichigo asked when she reentered the room. He was lying on his stomach and coloring in a badly drawn rabbit to Kito's delight.

"Old friend," she answered, flopping down beside him.

"The guy in the picture?" he asked without looking up.

"Yup. You know, you really suck at drawing."

"Well, at least I'm better than you."

"My drawings are beautiful, thank you very much."

"Says who?" he muttered.

"Kito thinks they're wonderful, don't you Kito?"

Her son looked up at his name and then giggled.

"Ha! See!"

"Poor child," Ichigo said seriously.

"Hey!"

But, really, Rukia was alright. She had her jobs, her son, and a sixteen year old kid to make fun of. Everything was fine.

(1) Fried noodles with vegetables and meat. Similar to Chinese chow mein.

(2) Sweet composed of two pancakes with red bean paste in between. (Sounds nasty, but actually is quite good.)

(3) Government programs that supply money and food stamps to the elderly, disabled and single mothers.

(4) Japan's government provides universal healthcare with relatively low fees set by a committee.

**A/N: Yay! Ichigo-Rukia interaction! And, yeah, I apologize for the cliché Rukia getting sick part. I swear it had to happen! **

**Also, for the people who have been asking me how old Rukia is. It's actually in the summary, but for the record: Rukia is twenty.**

**And look! Someone drew me fanart comic thing for chapter one! Here's the link (remove the spaces): http: /b-ambola .livejournal .com/ 1021. html**

**So pretty! Thank you b-ambola!**

**Anyway, this chapter was made readable by my awesome beta Resonance and d! Please review!**


	4. Leap

Chapter Four-

"You have_ got _to be kidding me," Ichigo groaned.

Rukia frowned and put her hands on her hips, "Why not?" she asked in confusion, holding up the bib, "It's cute."

"It has _bunnies _on it," the sixteen year old replied, as if bunnies were akin to the end of the world.

"So?"

"They're _pink_! Do you want to give him a complex?"

"It's not going to give him a complex," Rukia argued. "He's one and a half!"

"How about something more normal?" Ichigo said in obvious exasperation. "This one's not that bad."

Rukia inspected the bib critically. "It's boring, though."

"It's a _bib_!"

"Yeah, but I have to look at it everyday!"

"So do _I_! And _he_ has to wear it!"

The child in question bounded up to them giggling and held up a bib that appeared to be covered in rainbows and unicorns.

"Wow," Rukia said as Ichigo gagged in the background, "He has _taste_!"

"Either that or he's gay," Ichigo interjected sullenly.

"It's okay, honey," Rukia said happily, picking Kito up and rubbing their noses together. "I'll support any lifestyle you choose."

"What kind of mother are _you_?" Ichigo groaned as Rukia threw the bib into the basket.

"A good one, thank you very much," Rukia said haughtily and flounced over to the shoe section.

"A crazy one, I'd say."

"Well, I hired _you_, didn't I?"

"Har har."

They left the resale shop at about quarter to seven and Rukia ran into a grocery store quickly to get some fish. Kito sat on Ichigo's shoulders and played with his hair on the way back. Rukia couldn't help but laugh at the look on Ichigo's face.

"You staying for dinner, teenager?" Rukia called, putting water on the burner.

"Someone has to wash the dishes," said teenager replied, untying Kito's small shoes carefully.

Rukia scowled, "I can wash dishes, you know."

"Yeah, and _suck _at it."

Kito giggled and waved his arms around.

"Traitor," Rukia muttered childishly.

Her phone rang. Rukia put down the knife she had been cutting up the fish with and picked it up.

"Hey, Renji!" she said cheerfully, and then picked up the knife again, holding the phone in place with her shoulder, "How's it going?"

"That's my line," he said laughingly, "But since you asked, pretty well actually. Got my schedule the other day and it looks pretty good."

"Oh, yeah, when does your school restart (1)?"

"A week from now. The 31st, actually."

"Your birthday?" Rukia exclaimed. "Wow, that sucks."

"Tell me about it. But, then again, I'm real excited for one of my classes. I've heard the professor's really good…"

"Renji," Rukia said mournfully, stirring the rice. "You know, your interest in school is really ruining your bad boy image. I still can't believe you're majoring in physics."

"Hey, it's interesting!" Renji said defensively.

"I'm sure it is," she said, chuckling. "You'll just have to excuse me if I find it hard to wrap my mind around you being interested in science. Didn't you hate it in middle school?"

"That was 'cause of the teachers," Renji admitted. "There were way better teachers at my high school."

"Yeah, that was the case at mine too. Here, wait a sec," she said and covered the speaker of the phone with her hand. "Hey, Ichigo! Can you peel a few apples for me?"

"Sure thing!" Ichigo called from the bathroom where he was cleaning the sink. Again.

"Would you stop doing that?" Rukia frowned. "It's bordering on obsessive!"

"If you stop getting it dirty, maybe!" Ichigo retorted. "I thought girls were supposed to clean!"

"Oh, because you're such an expert on girls, are you?"

"Shut up!"

"Sorry, Renji," Rukia said a tad louder than was needed. "The teenager is doing weird shit again."

"Hey! I'm not the one who is obsessed with _rabbits_!"

"Who asked you?"

"Rukia," Renji said, laughing, "So you're finally found someone who'll clean all your messes up? I approve of this punk!"

"Renji approves of you for reasons unexplained," Rukia told the orange-haired boy, "And he also called you a punk."

"Oi! I've seen his picture! I'm not the one with shoulder length hair and looks like a yakuza!"

"I heard that, brat!" Renji shouted through the phone as Rukia roared with laughter.

"I don't know, Ichigo!" Rukia said between giggles. "You spend more money on clothes than the average teenage girl!"

"I do not!"

"He does," Rukia told Renji. "What was he wearing the other day? A long maroon jacket and the tightest pants ever." Rukia raised her voice. "Not to mention all those crazy belts you own!"

"They're not crazy!"

"Oh, c'mon how many belts with spikes on them do you own? And I'm not even going to start on all the armbands and pants with chains."

"They're called studs for one," Ichigo said, apparently finding this reason enough to emerge from the bathroom. "And two, I'm not the one who dresses like an old lady!"

"Hey!"

Kito shrieked with laughter from where he was rolling a toy truck around on the floor and went up and hugged Ichigo around the legs happily. Rukia rolled her eyes, turned back to the stove and swore.

"Shit! The rice is boiling!" She turned down the heat and put a lid on the pan, "Ichigo! The apples!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ichigo said, shaking off Kito and proceeded to wash his hands for an obscene amount of time.

"Well, you sound busy, so I'll call back later," Renji said. "I'm glad you're doing well."

"Thanks," Rukia said, smiling slightly, "Bye."

She hung up and put her phone back on the counter.

She turned back to the fish and her life, and smirked.

"Oh, I do not like that look on your face," Ichigo muttered.

"What?" Rukia protested. "I've done nothing!"

"Not yet, you haven't."

Rukia rolled her eyes at his paranoia and pushed the fish of the cutting board into a frying pan. She put a bit of oil at the bottom and turned up the heat.

"How did you meet him again?" Ichigo asked, peeling an apple with a surprising amount of skill.

"I told you already, didn't I? We went to primary school together and kept in contact even though we went to different middle and high schools. He's in his third year at Osaka University (2)," she said proudly.

Ichigo nodded, looking impressed. He opened his mouth to say something else, but just then Kito reached up and snagged a few apple peels. He stuck them in his mouth and Rukia saw Ichigo frown.

"Hey, don't eat those, those are bad for you."

"Didn't you just tell me the other day that apple peels had tons of vitamins in them?" Rukia inquired.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't wash them. They'll have all these pesticides and stuff they use on them that's not good to ingest."

Rukia rolled her eyes, moving around the cooking fish in the frying pan with a spatula, "Hey, I never washed apples as a kid and I turned out fine."

Ichigo turned and raised an eyebrow, "That's debatable."

If it had been anyone else, Rukia would've been insulted, immediately thinking they were making a reference to her being a single mother. But this was _Ichigo_, and so Rukia merely snorted and told herself she should've seen that coming.

They were in the middle of dinner and Ichigo was trying to persuade Kito to eat his carrots when it occurred to Rukia that she didn't know when Ichigo's school was starting up again.

"September 7th," he said, shoveling rice into his mouth.

Rukia fiddled with her napkin and suddenly felt very nervous, "You…er…wouldn't mind still comi-working on Saturdays?" she said, and then, "I almost said weekends, but then I remembered that _somebody _made me take Sundays off." She did not mention that he came over on Sundays anyway.

Shit. Now that she thought about it, that probably wasn't the best thing she could've said, but Ichigo merely rolled his eyes and muttered something about her being a workaholic.

"Sure," he said casually, "I got nothing better to do."

Rukia beamed and ignored a small voice in the back of her head that told her she was pathetic.

* * *

"Where's the old man?" Ichigo asked warily, after he unlocked the door at 9:30.

"In the clinic," Karin answered, not looking up from her cell phone, her fingers moving rapidly over the buttons.

"At this hour?"

"Someone came in with a dislocated shoulder and you know how he is," Yuzu said fondly, her old teddy bear under her arm.

Ichigo politely refrained from rolling his eyes. She was ten and was _still_ playing around with stuffed animals. Not to mention that Ichigo almost felt sorry for that bear with the way Yuzu was always dressing it up in frilly costumes.

"Onii-san, did you eat dinner?" Yuzu asked, perking up.

"I always eat dinner over there," Ichigo grumbled, sitting down at the kitchen table and letting his head fall back. Fuck, he was tired.

"You didn't used to," Yuzu said, looking put out.

Karin swore and put down the cell phone, "Dammit, I can't get past Level Eight. It's pissing me off."

"Karin-chan…" Yuzu said admonishingly.

"Yeah, but seriously," Karin said, leaning forward and completely ignoring her sister. "Why are you always over there? It's weird."

Ichigo frowned, "What's weird?"

"I dunno, I mean, I can understand that you're getting paid, but you're _always_ over there. You don't have any friends over anymore."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Karin, the last time I had friends over, they broke my lamp."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Well, that was that Asano freak. What about Chad? Or Tatsuki?"

Ichigo winced. There was no way he was bringing Tatsuki over. It wasn't that he didn't like her, it was that Karin seemed to idolize the older girl. And really, Ichigo had enough girls beating on him at the moment.

"What about Orihime-chan?" Yuzu asked innocently.

"Yuzu," Ichigo gritted his teeth, "Drop it."

He hadn't told anyone, even his friends, that Inoue Orihime has asked him out in June. Mostly, because if he told Keigo it would be all over the school in a second.

But also because _he_ wasn't really sure what to think about it himself. It wasn't that he disliked Inoue, quite the opposite really. She was a bit weird, but altogether friendly (and not to mention attractive. Really attractive.) But the fact remained that she had always been 'Tatsuki's friend' or, as she was known as by the upperclassmen, 'that really hot first year.' He had never really paid much attention to her, and quite frankly didn't know anything about her except for the incident with her brother three years ago. Most guys would be excited and flattered that a girl of Orihime's caliber would be interested in them, and sure, Ichigo guessed he was flattered, but his enthusiasm ended there.

It sounded stupid and old-fashioned, but however pretty Inoue was, he didn't really want to go out with her. He had told her so, feeling like an asshole, but that was the way it was. She had smiled, somehow making him feel even worse, and acted totally the same as she always had. Ichigo had no idea how she did that, because he found it impossible to have a conversation with her without feeling embarrassed. More than once he had wondered if there was something wrong with him.

"I'm going up to bed," Ichigo said abruptly, to his younger sisters' surprise. "If he asks, I came back before his stupid curfew."

"He's not going to believe us," Karin muttered as he stood up.

Ichigo shrugged. "Whatever."

Yeah. There was something wrong with him. Not because he had spent most of his summer babysitting for the twenty year old single mother from across the street. No. It was because he had a_ crush_ on said single mother from across the street.

But, hey, Ichigo wasn't stupid. He knew that he wasn't the kind of guy whom girls had crushes on (Inoue was, as he had pointed out earlier, weird.) That wasn't even going into the fact that she was four years older than him and legally an adult. He was perfectly fine with hanging out with her and being her friend (as cheesy as it sounded Ichigo couldn't help notice she didn't exactly have a lot of friends in the world.) He liked her son and her as a person. There was no point in making things awkward, and if Inoue could act normally around him (he knew she still liked him) he could act normally around Rukia.

And life went on. Weeks passed and Ichigo started school again. Kito was enrolled in daycare during the week, though Ichigo still looked after him on Saturdays. Some of his friends, Keigo in particular, seemed annoyed that Ichigo never hung out with him, but that was hardly anything new. Ichigo did like hanging out with friends, but not _all_ the time. Both Rukia and Kito seemed cheerful and Ichigo couldn't help but be affected.

On a chilly Saturday morning in October, Ichigo made his way, as usual, to Rukia's place. Rukia was gone, of course, and when Kito woke up, Ichigo dressed him and took him to the park. Kito ran around the other children and collected a handful of rocks and gave them to Ichigo. He snorted with laughter, shoved them in his pocket. After a while, he got bored of making sure Kito didn't fall off the equipment and dragged him off to the blatant stares of the other mothers around.

"Alright, kid," Ichigo said as they walked back. "If you don't go running into the streets, I'll buy you candy, okay?

Kito giggled and attached himself to Ichigo's pant leg.

"Well, at least that won't be a problem," Ichigo muttered to himself.

Kito smiled happily and amused himself by jumping over the cracks in the street. He pulled away suddenly and picked up a particularly smooth rock. He babbled something out and held it up triumphantly.

"Er…yes…that's a rock."

Kito frowned and blurted something out that sounded like…

"Wait," Ichigo said, stilling, "Say that again.

Kito smiled. "Iiiijiinou!" he exclaimed.

Ichigo stared. Was he really starting to talk?

"Alright," Ichigo said, "It's Ichigo. I. Chi. Go."

"Ichinou!"

Ichigo couldn't help smiling and squatted down in front of him.

"Okay, watch my mouth carefully. I. Chi. Go."

"Ichiko!" Kito said happily.

Ichigo winced, "Er…almost, but I'm not a girl. (3) Try again: I. Chi. Go."

"Ijigo!"

"Almost there," Ichigo said, "Just a few more times and I promise you'll…"

Suddenly a horrible idea struck him.

"_Shit_," he thought, _"Rukia's going to hit me if Kito's first word is my name, isn't she?"_

…

"Oookay, kid," Ichigo said, switching tracks. "You know what? Ichigo's a rather boring word, you know, strawberries and all. Let's try 'Rukia,' shall we?"

"Gukiya!" Kito said jubilantly and smiled widely.

Ichigo sighed in relief. Crisis avoided.

At five-thirty, Ichigo raised his head as he heard the lock on the door click.

"Tadaima, (4)" Rukia said tiredly.

"Hey," Ichigo said, flipping through another magazine. Kito was stacking blocks on the floor and was having way too much fun knocking them down.

"Ughh…" Rukia groaned, sliding into the chair across from his, "If I ever smell coffee again, I think I'll throw up."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Bad day?"

She groaned again and laid her head on the table. "You have no idea. Those skirts are so fucking short and I'm getting sick of salary men staring at my ass."

"What?" Ichigo said, trying not to feel annoyed and failing.

"Assholes, all of them," Rukia said. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back onto the back of the chair.

Ichigo became intensely aware of the way her long eyelashes rested on her pale skin, that seemed to almost _glow_ in the pale lig-

Ichigo cleared his throat and turned away, feeling his cheeks heat up. Stupid, stupid, stupid…

Kito perked up and stood, tottering a bit. He came to stand next to Rukia and tugged on her skirt.

"Rukia!" he chimed.

"What?" Rukia murmured.

"Rukia!" he repeated, just as cheerfully.

"_What_?" Rukia said exasperatedly. "Just tell me what you wan…" She trailed off and opened her eyes.

Her mouth fell open and she stared at Kito for a few seconds. She turned and stared at him then, and Ichigo tried his best to look innocent.

"You," she said after a few seconds, "You…what?"

"Er…" He could really feel himself turning red now. Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and didn't look at her, "Er…well, he was starting to sound things out anyway, so…but I guess 'okaa-san' would've been a better choice, wouldn't it?"

"No," Rukia said. She had a strange look on her face. "That's…that's fine. I…don't mind."

Kito giggled and Rukia picked him up, seating him in her lap.

"Rukia!" he repeated for one of what would be many times and tugged on her hair.

"Uh huh," Rukia said softly, brushing his bangs back. "You're a good child, huh?"

Ichigo looked embarrassedly off to the side, feeling out of place.

"Alright!" Rukia said determinedly, causing Ichigo to look back at her, "This calls for a celebration!"

"Oh, God," Ichigo vocalized.

"Shut it, you," Rukia replied, standing up and twirling Kito around, "You want a party, don't you, Kito-_chan_?"

Ichigo made a gagging noise and she rolled her eyes at him.

"So where are we going?" Ichigo asked, stuffing his shoes on.

"The grocery store."

Ichigo frowned, "The _grocery _store?"

Rukia grinned, "I think I might buy the entire candy aisle."

"Oh, God."

"Okay," Ichigo said, "I think that's enough."

Indeed, the basket he was holding (emphasize on _he_) was getting really heavy.

"But what about this one, huh?" Rukia said, more cheerfully than he had ever seen her before, "And it's not _that_ expensive!"

"Don't you think we have enough already?" Ichigo said somewhat desperately.

"Oh, don't be a wimp," Rukia retorted. "I can carry it if it's too heavy for you."

Ichigo scowled, but did not relinquish the basket.

Kito pulled a plastic package full of tiny chocolates off the shelves and jumped up and down excitedly.

"Rukia!" he warbled, and thrust the package at her.

"Hmm…" Rukia said, taking it. "Okay!"

She tossed it into the basket and Ichigo groaned.

"Oh, be quiet!" she said, not bothering to sound at all irritated. "It's okay once and a while! Nee, Kito?"

She smiled down at her son fondly and Ichigo couldn't help but soften.

"_Alright, maybe just this once-"_

"Hey, Ichigo!"

Ichigo blinked and turned around to see Keigo.

"Hey," he said, "What are you doing here?"

"My stupid sister ran out of juice," he said, looking annoyed, "You are…"

He looked curiously over Rukia and Kito.

"I'll go ahead, then, Ichigo," Rukia said abruptly.

"Okay," Ichigo said in surprise and Rukia dragged Kito off.

"Who is _she_?" Keigo asked, goggling.

"Neighbor," Ichigo said shrugging. "I've been running errands and watching her kid since the beginning of the summer."

"Oh." Then he narrowed his eyes. "So _that's _why you've been avoiding me!"

"Er…No, I-"

"How _could_ you, Ichigo!" Keigo said dramatically. "All these years, I've been your friend, and now-"

"Keigo-"

"-you just abandon me for a job. I'm so-"

"Keigo!" Ichigo snarled.

"Uh…yes?"

"You're making a scene."

Keigo looked around, suddenly aware of the glares of both shoppers and employees alike.

"Oh…oops?"

"Right," Ichigo said, talking quickly because Keigo only retained sensibility for so long. "I've got to, you know, go now, but I'll see you in-"

"No! You can't leave yet! Did I tell you what happened the other day after school? Well, Mizuiro and I were minding our own business and then these crazy _yakuza_ came up and-"

"_Fuck," _Ichigo thought and began looking for ways to escape.

* * *

"Where were you?" Rukia asked him as he pushed through the line at the cashier.

He scowled and muttered something about his crazy friends and why he hung out with them anyway. Rukia didn't ask.

"That'll be 3450 yen (5)," the cashier said, alternating between staring at her and Kito, and Ichigo's hair.

"Oh, God," she heard Ichigo mutter and Rukia sniggered and handed over the money.

"Crazy," he told her as they walked the narrow streets back to her apartment.

"Basically," she said, grinning and watching Kito suck on a rather large lollipop.

Ichigo rolls his eyes at her.

"I'm going to take a shower, okay?" she said when they got in the door.

"Sure," Ichigo replied, "There's leftover tempura in the fridge, right?"

Rukia blinked, "There is?"

Ichigo groaned, "Never mind. Go and take your shower."

Rukia smiled apologetically. Right now seemed an appropriate time to say thank you, but for some reason the words stuck in her throat.

"Right," she said and reached down and ruffled Kito's hair, "Make sure he doesn't eat _too_ much candy."

"I'll try," Ichigo said sarcastically, and she laughed.

She got in the shower and scrubbed her hair until the scent of coffee and cigarette smoke faded. It always stuck to her hair and clothes. She hated it. Especially since being around all that smoke made her want to get a cigarette herself, even though she had quit when she realized she was pregnant.

It was when she had dried off and was getting dressed when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Ichigo called.

"It's probably the landlord," she replied, putting on her bra. "Be out in a sec!"

She heard the door open and Ichigo say, "Er…you are?"

Rukia rolled her eyes. Stupid teenager. Couldn't even answer the door properly. She hung the towel out and put on her skirt and shirt.

"Sorry," she said, exciting the bathroom. "How can I help yo…"

She trailed off and felt all the color drain out of her face.

Kuchiki Byakuya stood in her doorway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kito perk up. Byakuya's eyes shifted to her son and stayed there for a few seconds before returning to her.

"Onii-san (6)," she whispered and knew that all hell was about to break loose.

(1) I probably should've mentioned this before, but I've been lazy. The Japanese school year starts in April (and ends in March.) Summer break is two months long and school restarts in late August/early September.

(2) Third best university in the Japan. Ranked 46th in the world. (…not that you care, but what the hell?)

(3) Names with the ending of 'ko' tend to be girl's name.

(4) 'I'm home!" or 'I'm back!"

(5) About 32 dollars.

(6) Yes, I realize that Rukia calls Byakuya 'Nii-sama' in the manga and usually I hate when people mess around with suffixes in fanfiction. However, in modern day Japan, it just isn't plausible that Rukia would refer to her older brother/brother-in-law using the suffix '-sama.' So I changed it to 'nii-san' and then added the 'o' to have some remaining sense of an honorific.

**A/N: Haha! Cliffhanger! (To those of you who read any of my other fics, you knew this was coming. Don't lie.) **

**Wow, this fic is going so fast! Much faster than I expected it to. I tend to prolong stuff like this. **

**Anyway, the usual, thank my amazing beta Resonance and d! Please review!**


	5. Slipup

Chapter Five-

"Rukia," the unknown man -her brother?- acknowledged. Rukia looked terrified, Ichigo noticed. He tried to remember what she had told him about her brother-in-law all those months ago. He remembered that she had been hiding from him, so…

Ichigo gulped as he saw the angry expression on the man's face. Crap. Not good.

"What is this, Rukia?" he asked calmly, but Ichigo could hear the thinly veiled fury. He ran his eyes over him and Kito, who was staring up at the newcomer curiously from the floor.

"Ichigo…" Rukia breathed. She sounded as if she had been punched in the gut. "Will you please take Kito down to the vending machines in the lobby?"

"Rukia-" Ichigo started, not sure if leaving her alone with her furious brother-in-law was a good idea.

"Now," Rukia said, clenching her jaw.

The man was well dressed and Ichigo watched him out of the corner of his eye survey their exchange coolly.

"Right," he said. He pulled Kito up by the hand and walked him out of the room. He half expected Rukia's brother-in-law to stop him, but he merely glanced at him as they walk through the door. There was silence as Ichigo shut the door and walked down the hall. But when he started down the stairs, the yelling began. Ichigo paused and turned, unsure if he should go back.

The voices weren't distinct and Ichigo couldn't tell what they were saying, but Rukia's voice had risen to a pitch he hardly thought possible. Kito pulled on his sleeve and made a cooing noise.

"Fuck." Ichigo gritted and brushed his hand through his hair. "C'mon, kid. I guess your mom would kill me if I interfered anyway."

But still, he couldn't get her voice out of his head.

Ichigo bought a plum drink for Kito and a coffee for himself. He and Kito sat on a bench next to the vending machines and drank their respective drinks.

"Oi, don't spill," Ichigo muttered, saving Kito's drink for the second time.

Kito smiled up at him. "Rukia!" he chirped.

Ichigo sighed and slumped against the wall. If he tried hard enough he could hear their voices traveling through the walls…

It must have been at least an hour that they sat there. Maybe two. After a while, Ichigo stopped checking his watch. And still neither of them came down or left. Kito eventually feel asleep and it began to get dark. Ichigo tapped his fingers against the wall impatiently. He was getting annoyed. Was something wrong? Should he go up? He desperately wanted to, but he knew Rukia would take it the wrong way. Kito shifted on the bench and knocked his empty bottle onto the floor. Ichigo leaned down to pick it up and then he was there.

"And you are?" Rukia's brother-in-law asked icily with undisguised contempt.

The implication was obvious and Ichigo's mouth curled in disgust.

"Shut your mouth," he said distastefully, "I'm _sixteen_, you asshole."

His expression did not change and his eyes bored into Ichigo's. Ichigo refused to back down and glared right back.

"The babysitter, fucker," Ichigo said and resisted punching the bastard in the face. All he wanted was to go up and see if Rukia was okay, but he couldn't exactly do that with _him_ standing there and saying shit.

The older man let out a snort, and then turned and walked away. Ichigo watched him walk down the lobby and out the doors.

"Shit," Ichigo muttered, as he rounded the corner and disappeared. He picked up Kito with one arm and all but ran up the stairs. The door was still open and Ichigo slid inside the small apartment. Rukia stood with her back to the door, her hands on either side of the sink, shoulders hunched.

Ichigo set the still sleeping Kito on one of the chairs. He shifted restlessly against the cheap plastic, but did not wake.

"Rukia…?" he started hesitantly.

* * *

"Where is Kito?" she asked automatically in a hoarse voice, squeezing the sides of the sink, eyes still closed.

"Oh," Ichigo said, "He's asleep. You've…you've been up here a long time."

A spasm of an unpleasant feeling that Rukia couldn't place traveled through her body, causing her to shudder.

"Are…are you alright?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Do I look alright?" she hissed, tensing up.

She did not open her eyes, because if she did, she knew she would cry.

"Sorry," she said before he could respond, "I don't know why I said that."

"It's okay," he murmured and stepped close, "Do you want me to…do anything?"

For some reason, it was that that did it. Later, Rukia would try to dissect her reasoning, coming to the conclusion that it was some subconscious desire for comfort. Because he was too goddamn nice for his own good, and she was too rotten to not take advantage of that.

So Rukia opened her eyes and turned abruptly, barely registering the surprised look on his face. And without thinking of the consequences, or of her child being less than a meter away, or anything really; Rukia grabbed his collar, pulled him down and kissed him right on the mouth.

Ichigo made a muffled sound of surprise, but she didn't particularly care and closed her eyes, sliding her hands into his strangely-colored hair. He lost his balance and stumbled, pressing her right against the sink. Rukia took a breath and then pressed her mouth against his again, pushing herself closer and deeper. Ichigo groaned against her mouth, losing the tenseness in his shoulders and letting his hands fall carefully to her shoulders. He didn't really know what he was doing, something that should've amused or annoyed her, but ended up turning her on. She slid her hands down his neck and curled her tongue around his. A strange, greedy, buzzing sensation filled her, wanting more, more, more. She guided his hands clumsily to her waist and took another breath before pressing her lips to jaw and neck, simultaneously finding the hem of his shirt and pulling it up…

Ichigo let out a surprised sort of grunt and jerked back. Rukia's eyes snapped open and they starred at each other. Rukia hand slowly came up to cover her mouth and realized that she actually-

"You…" Ichigo's face began to resemble his name, "I…You kissed me!"

Rukia blinked, "I…" She gripped the sink hard and found that she had no idea what to say, "Shit, sorry, I wasn't…I didn't…" she trailed off.

There was one of the most awkward silences of Rukia's _life_.

"I…I had better go…" he said, looking embarrassed and confused.

"Oh…" Rukia said, not really listening to him, her mind repeating a mantra of "_What the fuck did I just do_?"

Then the door shut and he was gone. Rukia paced, gripping the fabric of her dress anxiously.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," she whispered, "What the hell was I thinki-"And idea came to her and she lunched for her phone on the table.

"Rukia?" Renji answered, "Look, this is a bad time, can I call you ba-"

"Renji!" Rukia cried, "I did something so stupid! I don't know what I was thinking! I-"

"Wait, wait! Calm down! What happened? Are you okay?"

"-can't believe it, what an _idiot_! I just didn't think and then everything was-"

"Rukia! What _happened_? Start from the beginning!"

"I, first, Byakuya came and then we had a fight and-"

"WHAT?" Renji yelled, "He found you? How is that possibl-"

"Renji!" Rukia all but wailed, "I kissed a _sixteen_ year old!"

There was silence at the other end of the line.

"…what?"

"There's something wrong with me!" she exclaimed, pacing the length of her small apartment. Kito stirred, "Shit," she whispered, lowering her voice, "Kito's waking up…"

"Rukia, calm _down_," Renji emphasized, "Now, did you really…uh…"

"I'm such a moron," she gritted, "Can I not be friendly with a guy without jumping him?"

"Er…you never jumped me."

"Oh, you don't count!"

"Thanks," he replied sarcastically.

Rukia collapsed in the chair that Kito was not occupying. "I'm _so _fucking stu-"

"Rukia! Calm down! Let me get a word in, okay?"

She groaned in response.

"So…er…" Renji suddenly sounded reluctant, "that was that Ichigo kid?"

"Who else would it be?"

"Okay, okay, I was just asking…" he trailed off.

"Well?" Rukia asked, after a few seconds. "What wisdom can you impart to me, oh great and powerful one?"

"Er…well," Renji cleared his throat awkwardly. "He's…um…sixteen, right? That's…that's kinda young…"

"I am well aware of that fact!"

"So…it's be kinda weird, if you…uh…"

Rukia moaned. "No, Renji, that's not the point! I don't like the kid like that! That's the problem!"

"Oh…okay…"

"You're not helping!"

"What am I supposed to say?" he asked, starting to sound annoyed. "Seriously, Rukia, if it was just a mistake, then…well, just it was a mistake."

"But," She closed her eyes and slumped, "Renji, I-I've ruined everything. I mean…really…Ichigo is-_was_ a friend and now it'll be all awkward."

She sighed, "I just wish…first Byakuya and now this!"

"What…what did he Byakuya say?" Renji asked quietly. "Or do you not want to talk about it?"

"He…Well, what I expected really. The _gall_ of me running away from home and having a kid without telling him."

"You know, that's probably his fucked up way of saying he cares about you," Renji observed.

"By yelling at me for more than an hour? That's bullshit and you know it, Renji! He…He's never cared. Not really. He just thinks he has an obligation to my sister. And now…"

"What are you going to do?" Renji asked "Now that he's found you. Move again?"

"I don't know," she mumbled, "I told him I never wanted to see him again, and to leave me alone and get out of my life, but I doubt he'll listen." She gave a weak chuckle. "Thanks for listening to all my shit, Renji. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"It's fine," he said awkwardly. "I just wish I could do more."

"So…how's uni?" she asked tiredly.

"Rukia, don't just…look, I'm trying to help, okay?"

"Yeah…But…I just…I'm so angry at myself! I bet it was the plane ticket to get to Kyushu. He must have found that, and now Ichigo's…" She sighed and let her forehead touch the worn tabletop.

"Everything was fine before," she said sadly. "Really. Kito said his first word, my name if you'll believe it, and it…it was getting almost fun, you know. I had things to look foreword to in the morning. And now-! I can't believe I did that, I feel like such a slut. I have a toddler and I can't even keep my hands off the _babysitter_."

"Rukia, it's not as bad as all that," Renji said, "Everything'll turn out alright, I promise. I mean, it might not be _exactly _the same as before, but still, everything will be fine."

"Maybe," Rukia muttered. "I dunno, I just feel…so disgusted with myself right now."

"Hey, it could've been worse," Renji said optimistically. "It can always be worse. Think on the bright side."

"How exactly could it have been worse?" Rukia asked icily, not at all pleased by his confidence that she supposed was supposed to cheer her up.

"I mean, c'mon, he could've kissed you back or something."

Rukia opened her mouth to reluctantly agree with him, when…

"Er…"

"…he didn't, right?"

"Well…"

"_Right?_"

"Actually…um…"

"Rukia!"

"Yeah…now that I think about it…he sorta did."

Renji groaned, "_Please _tell me you're joking."

"No…not really."

"Goddammit, Rukia, I _told_ you hanging around with a teenager was a bad idea!"

"Oh, so now this is my fault?"

"Wasn't it your fault initially?"

"Gahhh…Stop making sense!"

"Er…you don't actually _like_ him, do you?"

"Renji!" Rukia exclaimed, shocked. "He's _sixteen_! I'm not that depraved."

"Ahem."

"Oh, shut up, maybe I am. But, seriously, even if I did-_if- _it's probably 'cause he's just nice and a tad innocent, even though he acts like a brat…And ugh, there are just so many reasons why _anything _wouldn't work."

"I believe you," Renji said after a pause. "So let us never speak of this again."

"Agreed."

Two hours later, Rukia ran out of minutes and bid Renji a hasty goodbye. She sighed and put her phone down. Kito was still asleep in the chair and she leaned down and brushed his bangs out of his face fondly. Rukia picked him up and he groaned sleepily, digging his small fingers into her arm.

"C'mon, now," she murmured. "To bed with you."

It wasn't really that late and if he woke up, Rukia could always give him dinner. She put on his pajamas, careful not to wake him, and tucked him into their small bed. She kissed him on the forehead and closed the door, returning to the kitchen.

Maybe it was for the best that Ichigo had left. It was utterly irresponsible of her to kiss him like that. He was a _child_. In fact, it was irresponsible to make a move on anyone while Kito was the impressionable age that he was. The fact that Ichigo was sixteen just made it worse.

She had no idea what to do about Byakuya either. He would be back, this she was sure of. The question was if should she leave before he did. Rukia sat down into one of the kitchen chairs.

She probably should leave, now that she thought about it. Byakuya would not let her be, even now that he knew why she had been hiding from him for the past two and a half years. He was stubborn like that and probably had notions of dragging her back to Osaka. He would probably try to make her give up Kito for adoption and go back to school.

It wasn't that Rukia was against going to university, she actually had been quite excited about it before she got pregnant, but there was no way she was going to give up Kito. Over her dead body. He was hers and no one else's. She was the one who had carried and given birth to him in a dingy hospital in Takehara (1). He was her child, not his father's-whoever he was-and certainly not Byakuya's. She was an adult now, and could make her own choices.

Rukia brought her feet up to the seat of the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees.

Yes. She was an adult now. That was true.

"_Well, you better start _acting _like one now, Kuchiki."_

And that did _not _involve throwing herself at anyone who was kind to her.

Now that she thought about it, it had always been that way. She had been absolutely in love with a young businessman who had worked for Byakuya several years before. Kaien-san had been friendly and genuinely nice, unlike many of the boys she had surrounded herself with. Looking back, it was easy to understand why she had fallen for him. She could count the people who had been truly kind to her on one hand. Hisana was her sister and Renji her best friend. Which left…

But Kaien-san had been married-was still married-and even Rukia knew better than to try and intrude on that.

So she had faded back into the drinking and the partying and the sex. Especially the sex.

So it really hadn't been that much of a surprise when she discovered that she was pregnant a month before she turned eighteen. At first she had been horrified, most likely the product of too many TV dramas rather than coming to that conclusion her own. But the more she thought about it, the less horrifying it became. "Why not?" she started to asked herself. She had been planning to get away from Byakuya anyway and a child might not be as bad as all that.

"I was an idiot," she said softly, _mockingly_. "Had no idea what I was getting into."

Several hours later, nothing had come to her and she went to bed, curling an arm around her son. She still had until next Saturday, after all. And if worst came to worse she could always enroll Kito in daycare on Saturdays as well.

She dreamt strange dreams that night. She dreamed she was running through the street of abandoned buildings where she would go to smoke as a teenager. She was looking for Kito who had run away from her in the night. She knew he was there, for some reason, and fear coursed through her. Suddenly, Byakuya appeared, standing tall and regal in his business suit. She screamed at him to go away, to leave her alone, but he wouldn't listen. He didn't say a word, but stared down at her with cold, unforgiving eyes. Eventually, Rukia ran, like a coward, through familiar streets full of unfamiliar people into nothingness. Her sister floated before her and then disappeared. She opened her eyes and found herself in Karakura, with Kito at her side. She dropped to her knees and hugged him tightly. He smiled up at her and she turned to see Ichigo rolling his eyes down at her like always.

"Shut it, teenager," she said playfully.

He scowled, "I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, but you were think-" she started, but then Ichigo's mouth was on hers, and the scenery and Kito faded away.

Rukia wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Ichigo's grip on her was gentle, _too _gentle, and Rukia surged forward only to wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath.

"I believe you," Renji had said.

The problem was Rukia didn't believe herself.

(1) A small town in the Hiroshima prefecture on Honshu.

**A/N: Er…yeah…sorry if the kissing part sucked. First het scene of that! Which is kinda depressing, but what the hell. **

**Anywho, I had Writer's Block **_**again, **_**which is why this took so long to get out. And I've been lazy. That too.**

**So many thanks to my beta and please review!**


	6. Reconstruction

Chapter Six-

"Ichigo?"

He glared at the soccer field out the window, tapping his pencil compulsively against his desk.

"Ichigo!"

It was a cloudy Monday morning and Ichigo had never hated school so much. Sure, it was always boring, but at the moment he_ loathed_ it beyond-

"ICHIGO!"

Startled, he looked up to see Keigo fuming.

"Uhh…"

"Are you deaf? I just asked you if you wanted to do something after classes are over!"

"Sorry," Ichigo replied, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Yeah, I'm free."

Keigo stared at him. Oh, c'mon, he wasn't that busy! Though lately he had been going over to Ru-

"Are you okay, Ichigo?" Tatsuki asked, coming up from behind him, looking concerned. "You've been spacing out the entire day."

Ichigo scowled, "It's nothing. I'm fine."

Tatsuki raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth, no doubt to say something sarcastic, but then Kagine-sensei poked his head through the door and yelled at them to shut up. He then proceeded to yell at Ochi-sensei for not disciplining them correctly and the rest of class slowly but surely crept away.

He had no idea what to do. Seriously, he had _no idea_. How did you deal with someone just…_kiss_…doing _that_ without warning? Even if she _was _his age it would've been weird. And she was _twenty_. With a _kid_! That was just so awkward.

…he'd kissed her back.

It was stupid of him. Real stupid. Sure, she had an _excuse_, mental distress and all. But he was just an idiot.

…he couldn't help it.

Well, it wasn't _his _fault! _She _had been the one who kissed him in the first place, after all. He had done nothing! Nothing!

His life had just turned into one of those TV dramas that Yuzu obsessed over. Ichigo was _so _screwed.

He got home at about five-thirty, leaned against the kitchen wall and groaned.

"What's wrong, Ichi-nii?" Karin asked, still playing games on her stupid cell phone.

"Nothing," he groused, throwing his bag onto the shoe rack. "Just a ton of homework."

A newspaper was spread across the kitchen table, the front page dedicated to the well publicized back robbery committed in the Kansai area. Ichigo gave it a disgusted look and stomped off to his room. Or he would have if he had not been intercepted by a kick to the head.

"ICHIGO!" his dad cried jubilantly, winking. "Going upstairs for some _alone _time?"

"YOU STUPID OLD MAN!" Ichigo shouted and it all went downhill from there.

A few days later, Ichigo went straight up to his room after school and collapsed onto his bed, staring at his ceiling.

Fuck. _Fuck. _What was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he'd never see her again-she lived across the street! And…and he-Ichigo gritted his teeth-he _wanted_ to see her again anyway. Goddammit, why couldn't he crush on someone his own age? Everything would be so much easier.

Well, moping about it wasn't going to change anything. There wasn't much he could do at this point. Maybe everything would work out.

_Yeah, right._

Sighing, he rolled over and made to go downstairs and get some dinner, but was stopped by the ring of his cell phone. He glanced at the name on the screen before picking it up; he made a point not to answer any calls from Keigo.

But it was not Keigo's name on the screen. Instead 'Rukia' shown out in neon green hiragana.

He stared at it for a few seconds. Should he-?

He swallowed and clenched his fists. What could she want? Shit, what was he going to _say_?

Suddenly, he saw with startling clarity what he must look like now. Shaking and sweating at there mere sight of his _cell phone_. How stupid. It was just a piece of metal and plastic. Ichigo took a deep breath and answered the call.

"Yeah?"

"Ichigo!"

Ichigo blinked in surprise. She didn't sound how he thought she would. Not serious, but…frantic? He opened his mou-

"Spots! All over his body and he has a fever of 38°C! I think Kito has the measles!"

She sounded quite desperate, but _measles_? Yeah, right, no one got measles anymo…oh.

Ichigo could've laughed (with relief or because it was actually funny) but restrained himself, "Uh, Rukia, I'm pretty sure that's chickenpox."

There was a pause. "Chick…_Oh_."

He snorted, "Yeah. Er…you know what that is, righ-"

"I know what chickenpox is! Now, how do I get rid of it?"

Ichigo frowned and sat back down on his bed, "Wait, have you had them before?"

It would be bad if she hadn't. Chickenpox in adults tended to be much more serious than it was in children, and if she caught it from him-

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, but I was really young. I don't remember much about what to do…" she trailed off and Ichigo could visualize her gritting her teeth and gripping the fabric of her old lady dress tightly.

"Okay, you didn't give him any painkillers, did you?"

"No, I was going to, but I thought it would be better to ask you first."

Ichigo sighed and grabbed his jacket. "Good, don't. The ones you have are probably okay, but there are a few brands that have a chemical in it that can cause complications when you give it to someone with chickenpox. Here, I'll get something from the clinic and come right over."

"Thanks," she said, shakily. "Sorry, if I'm-"

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo said, feeling uncomfortable. "I'll be over in a second."

He hung up and slipped his cell phone into his pocket.

"Oi, oyaji!" Ichigo calls, pulling on his jacket, and taking the stairs down two at a time. "Can you lend me some acetaminophen?"

His father blinked, "Sure, I think there's some in the backroom, but why-"

Ichigo ignored the question and went into the backroom of the clinic. He looked through several cardboard boxes until he found a familiar looking white and red bottle.

"Right," he muttered to himself and shoved the bottle in his pocket as well. He locked the door of the clinic and made to walk out the front door when Yuzu's voice stopped him

"Onii-san," she called, coming to the door, holding a spatula. "Dinner's almost ready, where are you going?"

"Out," he said, "Don't wait for me."

"Ichigo," his father yelled from the next room, "where do you think you're-"

"Later!" he called and departed quickly.

It was drizzling outside, but Ichigo didn't care much and sprinted across the street, nearly colliding with an old woman on a bicycle. He shook the water out of his hair in the lobby, to the obvious disapproval of the receptionist.

"So you're back," the man behind the desk said snidely. "I thought you were gone for good."

Ichigo resisted flipping him off, took the stairs up to the fourth floor, and knocked hesitantly on the door labeled with a large '28.'

The door opened and Ichigo hoped to God his hair looked okay.

It was weird seeing her again. In reality only a few days had gone by, but for some reason it seemed much longer. Of course, Rukia hadn't changed. She stood there just the same as always, though today it appeared she was wearing pants.

"Y-You came," she said, sounding more relieved than anything. She looked almost as tired she did the day she collapsed and sweat was beading at her brow.

Ichigo scowled reflexively. "I said I would, didn't I?"

She frowned immediately. "Oi, what's that supposed to me-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ichigo said, waving his hand back and forth dismissively. "Where's Kito?"

Her face fell, "Oh, here, come in."

He stepped into the room and removed his shoes, sticking them on the shoe rack that he forced Rukia to buy back in August. He followed her into the bedroom and couldn't help feeling embarrassed.

"_Get it together, Kurosaki!"_ he thought and gritted his teeth.

Kito was sitting on top of the thin comforter, covered in small red dots. He didn't seem particularly perturbed about this new state, though he looked quite pale. He made a soft sound at the sight of him, but it was more subdued than usual. "You said he had a temp of 38?" Ichigo asked, pressing the back of his hand against Kito's forehead, who smiled at him weakly.

"Yeah."

"Well, I have medicine here," Ichigo said, pulling out the bottle of acetaminophen. "Uhh…It's in pill form, so you better crush it up and put it in his drink or something. One should be enough for his size."

He handed her the bottle and ruffled Kito's hair despite himself.

"When did he start showing symptoms?" he asked, sitting down in one of the chairs in the kitchen while she fixed the medicine.

"Umm…yesterday he was really crabby, put the spots didn't appear until this morning."

She didn't look at him while she spoke, but kept her face carefully angled away from him. She was embarrassed. To be fair, so was he, but for some reason the fact that she wouldn't look at him made it even worse. She was moving to the sink now, where only a few days ago they had-

Ichigo coughed lightly and turned his head to the slide to hide his blush.

Shit. What was it that they did in those dramas again?

Rukia turned around abruptly with a cheap plastic glass in hand and made her way to the bedroom. Ichigo stood up and trailed in her wake awkwardly, unsure if he should follow or not.

"C'mon now, Kito," he heard her mutter and he peaked around the door. "Just drink this and I'm sure you'll feel bett- don't scratch them! Look, you-"

She grabbed his arms and forced them away from his body. Kito's eyes watered and he began wailing. Ichigo winced.

"Er…I think cream is supposed to help," he ventured, remembering when Yuzu and Karin had had chickenpox.

"Cream," she muttered to herself over Kito's crying. "I-I think there's some hand and face lotion in the bathroom, but will that be effective enoug…"

Ichigo went to get the lotion. He hovered back uncertainly while she undressed her sniffling son and rubbed the lotion soothingly over his pocked skin. She coaxed him into drinking the concoction of acetaminophen and juice, and Ichigo began to around the room for distractions.

"Ichigo?"

He looked down to see that Kito had fallen asleep on Rukia's lap. She had a strange look on her face.

"Thanks," she said, smiling softly, "really."

It unnerved him, her talking like that. As a result, he felt even more embarrassed.

"Rukia, I-"

"Look, Ichigo-"

They stared each other.

"You go first," Rukia said quickly.

Crap. Wasn't this always the part in the movies where the deep confessions were made? Ichigo didn't have any confessions to make. Honestly. All he had been planning to say was-

"Er…I was thinking that…umm, you should probably call the daycare center and tell them that Kito has chickenpox. He might have exposed other kids there…"

Rukia blinked. "Oh…yeah. I'll do that."

She went to get her phone then and Ichigo was left with a nagging feeling that he did something wrong.

* * *

As it turned out, Ichigo had made the right suggestion about calling Kito's daycare center. The woman on the phone was rude (apparently several other children had caught the virus as well,) but she seemed thankful that Rukia had called. Unfortunately, the woman also informed her that Kito would not be permitted to come back until all the spots had disappeared and at least a week had passed.

Rukia hung up and groaned. She had called in sick for work today, but there was no way she could take off an entire week!

"Hey, Rukia!" Ichigo called. coming out of the bedroom, "Why did you think Kito had the measles? I mean…no one gets measles anymore."

Rukia swallowed and set the phone down on the counter. He had a very serious look on his face which meant he had probably guessed it…

She didn't say anything, but instead fiddled with her cell phone.

"Rukia…" he said in a low voice and came closer. It reminded her of _that _time, which was utterly ridiculous because he was _sixteen_ and she was-

"You didn't vaccinate him, did you?"

"No," she said calmly, turning to look at him. "I didn't."

"Goddammit, Rukia!" he swore loudly, startling her. "Don't you know how _stupid _that…" he trailed off and the angry and worried look faded.

"This is one of those paranoid things isn't it?"

Rukia stiffened. "It's not paranoia if someone's really out to get you. And he found me, so I obviously did _something_ wrong!"

He frowned. "But they're not that expensive! They should be covered by health insurance." He paused, "You _do_ have health insura-"

"Don't be stupid, Ichigo! (1)" she hissed, "They keep records of child vaccination, you know!"

"That's…oh."

"Y-You," she was so furious she could barely speak, "You and Renji, you're always…you're _always_ going on about how I should…I should _talk_ to him and you don't even…do you _know_ what he said to me? He…he dared to talk about _her_ and-"

"Hey, wait a second," Ichigo argued, looking surprised. "I never said anything about-"

"-in the that condescending voice, saying all this shit and I-"

"Rukia, wai-_listen _to me, Rukia! Look, I know that you're upse-" he started.

"Well, what gave you that impression?" she snarled.

"What do _you_ think!" he replied just as angrily

She opened her mouth to retort, but then paused. Was he talking about…he couldn't be…

Ichigo winced.

"What," she said slowly, "do you mean by that?"

He wasn't talking about…_that_, was he?

He was blushing now and then cleared his throat.

"Nothing," he said, not meeting her eyes.

"You-" she felt her face heat up. "What are you-"

"Can we not talk about this?" Ichigo interrupted, looking out the window to the street below.

There was a pause and the awkwardness almost stifled her.

"I should apologize, I suppose," she said finally, her voice cold.

She didn't understand what was going on. A second they were yelling and now-now they were…

He's sixteen, she willed herself to remember. Don't forget yourself.

It seemed to take all the will power Ichigo had to mutter: "Don't bother."

Rukia opened her mouth and then closed it. She stared. That was not…that _could_ not be what she thought it was. But indeed, he had kissed her back, hadn't he? Crap. This way not going at all how she planned it.

…though that was probably the lack of actual planning in the first place.

But did that actually mean he-

"Alright, then," she said, trying to remember that _she_ was the adult here. "Fine."

She turned away and washed out the glass that she had used to dissolve Kito's medicine in, drying it out carefully with a worn dishcloth and placing it back in its cabinet. She was wiping off her hands when she heard Kito cry out in the other room. She did not look at Ichigo as she passed by where he was sitting to enter the bedroom.

Kito was itchy again and she soothed him by rubbing her back and whispering soft words to him. Ichigo hadn't followed her (she hadn't expected him to) so it was just them. He calmed down after a while, but Rukia remained at his side and told him how much she loved him.

She was not going to become one of _those_ mothers. She could not start down that path, no matter how attractive Ichigo was to her. This wasn't about his age; not really. Four and a half years was by no means that large of a difference in the long run. This wasn't about her either. This was about Kito. He was her son and it was her job to protect him. Rukia knew the younger generation considered it old-fashioned that a woman live for nothing but her own children. Hell, she agreed with them. But she was poor and had no friends close by, nor parents, nor husband to live for. And living for herself had gotten her into this mess, so that was out of the question as well. Because as hard as she might try to deny it, as hard as she tried to be strong and _change_, as hard as she wrapped herself in façades of strength and competence, she _knew_ what she truly was. Byakuya had tried to change her and failed, because she could never be anything more than a dirty little street kid, who had learned to steal before she could spell.

Rukia sighed and leaned back against the headboard of the rickety bed. Hisana would be so ashamed of her, wouldn't she?

She started when she realized she had almost dozed off. As much as she would have liked to drown in her self-pity, she knew enough to know that there more productive things she could be doing at the moment. She smiled derisively and slid off the bed. Kito, who had been playing around with his truck while she had been lost in thought, looked up at her with his pockmarked face.

"Stay in bed," she told him sternly, "I'll get you the stuff that you need, okay?"

He yawned and nodded lazily.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" she asked.

Kito shook his head and rubbed at his eyes.

"Give him some water," Ichigo voice's said and she turned around to see him at the door.

He grimaced awkwardly, "It's always good to drink a lot of water when you're sick."

Rukia smiled, "Sure," she said and got Kito a large glass of water and made him drink every last drop.

"Look," Ichigo said in an exhausted tone after they returned to the kitchenette. "This is stupid. Ridiculous even."

She raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

His mouth was set in a determined line, which usually meant that Rukia was going to be dusting the entire room or buying a different brand of shampoo because _"it's fucking unhealthy, you moron!" _

Instead of starting to rant about her apparent uncleanliness, he held out his hand.

"Truce?" he questioned and gave her a look that just _dared_ her to disagree.

Something about the way he said it, something about the look on his face filled her with a strange emotion that she couldn't interpret and she struggled to keep it from showing on her face.

Luckily, it waned quickly and she smirked. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly, looking right back at him defiantly.

"Alright then," she said and drew herself up, "Truce."

Rukia was unsure when this had become a contest of some sort, but it hardly mattered as Ichigo smirked back at her.

They shook on it, and just like that, all was right with the world.

(1) Having health insurance is mandatory in Japan. It's through the government and pretty cheap, though.

**A/N: Ughh…I hate this chapter…I should have gotten this out **_**weeks**_** ago, but Writer's Block is taking over my life. Why do I have such bad Writer's Block when it comes to this fic!**

**Ahem, annnnnnyway, this probably seems forced, because I did, in fact, have to force myself to write this. I'm sorry about the quality, but it probably would've never gotten done if I had put it off any longer.**

**Also, don't worry, there will be some resolution between Ichigo and Rukia (no, next chapter is not the last.) The romance will come, I promise! **

**Anyway, please review (and offer constructive criticism!) Many thanks to Resonance and d for beta-ing this! **


	7. Ripples

Chapter Seven-

So she had found an older woman to take care of Kito for a few days until the daycare center would let him back in. Rukia wasn't exactly pleased with the situation as the woman was taking care of several other children too. The other kids had either already had chicken pox or gotten vaccinated for it so there was no chance of Kito spreading it to them, but Rukia still felt uneasy leaving him there.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it and it was only for a few days. Soon Kito would be over the virus and he could go back to playing with trucks and coloring at the daycare center.

But even after Kito was back in daycare, things with Ichigo were still awkward. She certainly didn't see him as much as she used to, but Rukia reminded herself that things could still be a lot worse. The only times that he was around were the weekends and though Rukia felt a bit lonely, she knew that this was probably for the best.

Of course, despite all her good intentions, everything went to hell pretty fast. Not that, in retrospect, she was particularly surprised.

She had to work overtime one night and frantically called Ichigo to ask him to pick up Kito and then called the center to let them know that a teenager was coming to pick up her son instead of her.

She got back around eight-thirty and threw off her heels at the door, massaging her sore feet. She expected to see Ichigo sitting at the table doing homework or studying, but he wasn't not there. Kito was already asleep in the bedroom and she frowned. Did Ichigo just leave him there all by hi-

She heard a shuffle over by the bathroom and without thinking she pushed the bathroom door open.

Ichigo was very wet. It looked like he had just gotten out of the shower and his _bare back _was halfway turned away from her. Fortunately for the both of them, he had already put on his pants and was reaching for his shirt when she opened the door. He spun around in surprise, presumably having heard her enter. Rukia opened her mouth to apologize, but the words never came through.

She had never seen Ichigo with his shirt off before. That in itself really wouldn't have mattered that much at all except for that one day during the summer when the air conditioning had broke and Ichigo had refused to undo even one button, regardless of the fact that he was sweating buckets. Now she knew why.

Four jagged scars ran vertically down his chest, two on both shoulders and two, one above the other, in the center of his torso.

"Sorry," she heard herself say slowly, eyes still fixed to the marks, "I thought you'd left and then I heard a noise-"

"I took a shower after Kito fell asleep," Ichigo said in a sort of strangled voice and pulled on his shirt just a bit too quickly to be completely commonplace.

She jerked her eyes away and slid back out the door. She leaned against the wall next to the door, scrunched her eyes, and cursed silently.

Idiot! What was wrong with her? Out of all the things she could've done, she didn't have to stare like that. Of all people she knew what looks like that could do. Rukia had never particularly cared about what other people thought of her, but even she hadn't been impervious to the looks thrown her way from the time she had been pregnant up until now.

She went to the sink jerkily and started compulsively washing a few plates that had been left in the drainer until she heard the bathroom door open. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him exit and sit down at the kitchen table. She felt like she should apologize, but if she did, she would be admitting that the situation was much bigger than the chance opening of a bathroom door. So she kept her mouth shut. She was also, of course, curious about how he got those scars, but she wouldn't ask. He could tell her if he felt like it.

Ichigo didn't say anything and Rukia couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't sound completely moronic, so she kept mute as well. Minutes passed and the awkward silence remained. It was only when she finished washing the last of the dishes and began drying them off did he speak.

"You're not going to ask me anything?" he said without emotion, staring off into space.

Rukia put down the bowl and turned her head slightly to look at him. "It's not really any of my business," she said softly.

His eyes swiveled to meet her and he smiled wryly.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Nothing," he said quickly, the smile disappearing, replaced by a serious look, "You're just the first person who's ever said that."

Rukia frowned. "Really?"

He shrugged his shoulders and slid a hand had through his bright hair in a motion that she realized was meant to look casual. "I mean, whenever people saw them, they'd always bothe-_ask_ me about them," he said. "Most of them weren't rude about it or anything, but they'd always ask." The strange, almost _mocking_ smile appeared on his face again. "Even Chad and he's usually pretty quiet."

Rukia didn't know what to say to that so she just smiled gently and turned back to the sink.

"There was an earthquake seven years ago," Ichigo said suddenly and she froze, staring at his reflection in the window in front of her. "It was pretty big, so you probably heard about it on the news. That's why the entire downtown area is new. It wiped all the buildings out."

She saw him glance at her in the window's reflection and Rukia was intensely aware of how _young_ he looked.

"I-I was walking back from my martial arts class with my mother by the river," he continued, his eyes locked onto hers in the reflection, "and we were under a steel bridge when the quake hit. A few beams broke off, but they only grazed my chest because my mother pushed me out of the way."

The moment he said it, Rukia knew, somehow, that Ichigo's mother was dead.

"I'm sorry," she said, unable to tear her eyes from his.

There was a long pause in conversation then and then he turned his head away, shrugging.

"They didn't really hurt all that much," he said, ignoring her apology, though Rukia was sure he knew why she said it, "It's just with they kinda look like I got in a knife fight or something and that combined with the hair…" He let out a derisive snort. "Well, let's just say that everyone thought I was some sort of delinquent in middle school."

"Hey, don't diss us delinquents!" Rukia said mock-indignantly, turning around and he laughed.

"I can totally see you skipping class and getting in fights," he said jokingly and maybe it was just Rukia's own messed up mind, but his voice sounded almost tender.

And suddenly, completely out of nowhere, her throat got tight, her chest hurt, and Rukia knew she wanted to kiss him. She had to grab the back of the sink in support at this revelation, but that really didn't help because it just made her remember how he'd pressed her up against it and-

She swallowed and tried to regain some semblance of decorum when all she wanted to do was slide her hands into that ridiculous hair, cup his face, and kiss him so badly…And she probably would've if not for Kito, who had chosen this opportune moment to wake up.

"Ichigo!" he exclaimed triumphantly, never missing an opportunity to use his new favorite word.

"Hey, kid," Ichigo said distantly, giving a brief wave.

Rukia picked her son up and balanced him against her hip.

"Hey," she said, jostling him up and down, "You hungry, baby?"

Kito nodded enthusiastically and Rukia opened the fridge.

"Alright…let's see what we have here."

She scanned the refrigerator's contents, making note of a few empty spaces that she needed to fill the next time she went shopping.

"How about oyakodon (1)? I just got some chicken the other day so I think I have all the ingredients…"

She bent down to see how many eggs were left in their carton, but at that moment Kito squirmed around in her arms and she dropped down quicker than she anticipated and banged her head against one of the shelves. Kito, unhurt, screamed and began crying loudly, something he'd been doing more and more often after his 2nd birthday.

"Fuck!" she heard Ichigo exclaim. She rubbed her eyes absentmindedly, try to get rid of the multitude of stars that clouded her vision. Then the fridge door was flung back and Ichigo was there, bending over her with a concerned look on his face. She tried to protest the rough treatment of her refrigerator door-didn't he know how expensive it would be to fix if it broke?-but couldn't get the words out somehow.

"I'm…I'm fine," she said instead, sitting up and touching her head gingerly. She winced, "Kito-"

"He's fine," Ichigo said automatically over her son's wailing. "Just scared, I think."

Rukia didn't say anything, but felt around her head cautiously for blood.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked and grasped her shoulder.

She gave a surprised jerk at the touch, but managed to keep her expression blank.

"Fine. Really," she said at his look and managed to pull herself to her feet, waving away his help.

"Hey, I'm okay," she told Kito, who had managed to stop crying at this point, still holding her head.

"You sure you're not going to faint again?" Ichigo asked only half-jokingly. His hand was on her back.

"Screw you," she muttered without thinking, and then froze. She glanced up at him warily, but Ichigo hadn't noticed anything.

It kinda hurt to have him this close, but yet so far. It wasn't a feeling she was unfamiliar with. After the whole Kaien-san thing, she could hardly pretend not to recognize it.

Rukia wasn't really sure of what was going on at this point, but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

* * *

The next day was pretty much like any other day. Ichigo got up, ate breakfast, and went to school. Keigo made an idiot of himself in front of in gym class (again) and Mizuiro revealed another of his so-called adventures with older women of which Ichigo tried not to listen to. (Okay, so _maybe_ he could've tried a little harder.)

After school, Mizuiro and Keigo dragged him and Chad off to get a new CD that had just came out and get a bite 'because you never hang out with us anymore!'

They spent about half an hour at a bookstore, most of which Keigo spent flirting outrageously with the girl at the counter to no avail. They left shortly afterwards and went to a local café.

Even though it was mid-December, it never got particularly cold in Karakura, so they sat outside.

"Oh my God," Ichigo moaned after Keigo whistled at a bunch of girls who couldn't be more than middle school students, "Please stop. I'm embarrassed to be out in public with you."

"Hmph," Keigo said, sticking his nose up in the air, "Just because you're sexually repressed doesn't mean the rest of us are automatically perverts, right Mizuiro?"

"Hmm? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Mizuiro responded smiling brightly up at him.

"Gahh…"

Ichigo threw a despairing glance towards Chad, who seemed more amused by the entire scene than annoyed.

Ichigo was starting to wish that he'd told them he'd signed up for cram school at the beginning of the year. That would've made this whole thing easier, as he could just waltz off claiming that he had to study.

Just as he was contemplating the gruesome murder of one Asano Keigo (_why _was he friends with these people again?) he spotted a familiar face in the throng of people on a crosswalk, most of whom were housewives out shopping for the night's dinner.

"Hey, wait a second," Ichigo muttered and grabbed his bag, "I'll be right back."

"No _you_ wait a second, traitor!" Keigo shouted after him, besides Mizuiro's protests, "Get back here!"

"_I don't know him…" _Ichigo thought, as people began to stare at him, _"I _really _don't know him…" _

"Oi! Rukia!" he crossed the street, bumping into several people in the process, and saw her head swivel around.

"Oh, Ichigo, hey," she said, turning and adjusting Kito in her arms, "I got off work early and decided to get some groceries. What are you doing around here?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, but the effect was kinda ruined as he had to step aside for a bike while he did it. "Got dragged here to buy some stupid CD or something."

Rukia glanced over his shoulder to where Keigo, Chad, and Mizuiro were sitting.

"You make it sound like a bad thin-" she started, but was cut off by Kito whining.

"Oh, c'mon now," she muttered to her son, "It's not as bad as all that…"

"What's wrong with him?" Ichigo asked and was surprised to see Kito scowling at him.

"He's been a real brat lately," Rukia said with a frown, "The 'terrible twos' or something like that. That's what the woman at the daycare center said, anyway."

Ichigo tried not laugh. Really. He just sorta failed.

"What?" Rukia asked indignantly, looking insulted, "What's so fun-"

"Look," Ichigo said, not sure if he was laughing at her or the expression on Kito's face, "Kito is _not_ a brat. You have no idea…" He struggled to gain his composure, "My sisters were _horrible_, always screaming and throwing tantrums. If you think this is bad…"

"You mean it's going to get worse?" She looked horrified.

"I really doubt that," he told her sincerely. "You probably would've noticed by now if that were the case."

"Oh," she said, looking pleased, but then winced when someone knocked into her. "Well, I had better go. Will you be coming over for dinner?"

"Yeah, sure," Ichigo said shrugging casually, acting as if he wasn't over there _all the time._

She gave him a quick smile and a wave, and then Ichigo headed back to where his friends were sitting.

"Who was that?" Mizuiro asked with interest.

"Neighbor," Ichigo grunted and stole some of Keigo's chips.

"Is she some sort of delinquent?" Keigo asked, ignoring the stolen chips, "I mean she has a kid and _how _old is she?"

Ichigo shrugged and tried to resist ripping Keigo's jaw off, because that would be rather _obvious_.

"And anyway," Keigo continued, "Did you just ditch us for _her_-"

Ichigo had had enough.

"Watch it," he said, nearly snarling it.

Keigo and Mizuiro looked surprised, but dropped the subject. Chad, however, merely looked thoughtful, but Ichigo didn't think much of it because he knew he could trust him.

He didn't expect to have to talk about it again and certainly not as soon as the day afterward. But there was little else he could do when they were sitting on the roof eating lunch and Chad…

"Ichigo," he said in his regular slow, deep voice, "Do you like that woman we saw yesterday?"

Ichigo spat out his drink all over his pants and gaped at him.

"Wha-What?"

"Ichigo, really?" Mizuiro said, shaking his head. "What did I always say? You're not supposed to go after the ones with _kids_!"

"You're kidding, right?" Keigo said, looking between Chad and Ichigo in confusion.

"What the hell?" he said and god, he had better not be as red as he thought he was. "Where did that come from?"

"You were standing in the middle of the sidewalk during rush-hour yesterday when you were talking to her," Chad says calmly. "I don't think you even noticed."

Oh. It had been rush-hour yesterday, hadn't it? Ichigo had wondered why so many people where bumping into him when he and Rukia…

"Dude," Keigo said managing to sound sympathetic and excited at the same time, "That's hilarious. Wait until I…tell…"

Ichigo grabbed the collar of his shirt and he trailed off.

"Let's talk about this 'telling' thing, shall we?" Ichigo growled.

In the end, Ichigo got both Mizuiro and Keigo to swear on their lives not to breathe a single word about the aforementioned subject to anyone. He may or may not have used force in the pursuit of this persuasion. Chad just seemed to find the whole thing extremely funny.

"So…" Chad said as they walked home together after school.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ichigo said stubbornly and Chad just made an amused sound and dropped the subject immediately.

About a week went by after the incident at school. Christmas decorations (2) started going up in the shops and the temperature dropped to about 10 °C , which was about as cold as it got in the winter. He had ran into Inoue in the grocery store one day and was able to have a normal conversation with her. Rukia got a raise at her night job and Kito vocabulary increased exponentially. He did pretty well in all his classes and even managed to get Ochi-sensei to stop bothering him about the fact that he hadn't joined any clubs.

The awkwardness that had stifled conversations between him and Rukia since mid-October had dissipated and Ichigo began to feel optimistic. He began to feel that this whole crush thing wasn't so bad after all. If he was lucky, maybe it'd even go away…

Unfortunately (or, on the other hand, maybe not…) none of these realizations came even close to coming true.

It was a rainy day about a week and a half before he got out of school for New Years when everything really changed. Ichigo had gotten home to find that neither his father nor his sisters were in the house. He watched a bit of T.V., did some homework, and was just about to take a bath when he spotted Rukia out the front window. Normally he would've just waved or something but it was poring rain outside and she wasn't carrying an umbrella.

Idiot, Ichigo thought in annoyance and made for the door, was she _trying _to get sick walking all the way from the bus stop in freezing rain…

"What the hell are you doing?" he nearly shouted, shoving aside the gate in front of the house, though his voice sounded more strange than anything because of the heavy rain, "Where is your umbrella!"

She jerked around, her arms wrapped tightly around her upper body, "Left it at home today," she replied in obvious confusion, and Ichigo couldn't help notice that her lips were blue. "The café had a leak in the roof and it was way too early to pick up Kito so I decided to go home and get some work done," she explained.

"Do you know how _cold_ it is today?" he shot back. "And you're soaking!"

"So are you," she replied, eyebrows raised despite how miserable she looked.

Ichigo scowled and then suddenly realized that this was like a scene from a bad movie, with the rain and all. It also didn't help that her dress was mostly white and this fact coupled with all the rain left little to the imagination.

"You are coming with me," he said angrily. grabbing her wrist, "And you're going to dry off and try not do anything else stupid today."

"Oh, no, c'mon, Ichigo, I was almost home anyway…" she complained, but didn't put up much a fight as he dragged her inside.

"Stay there," he ordered as she stood dripping on the mat, rolling her eyes while she was at it, "I'll get some towels.

"Ichigo…" she said exasperatedly, as he threw his shoes onto the shoe rack, "I'm fine."

He ignored her and took the stairs up three at a time, grabbing some towels from the kitchen.

"Hey!" she said, when he threw them down at her.

"Be quiet and dry off."

She scowled and muttered something rude, but complied, looking tired.

"You're a mess," he told her a few minutes later when they were sitting in the kitchen, handing her a cup of hot tea.

"You're not looking too sharp yourself," she said, eyeing his soaked shirt.

"At least I'm not dripping all over the floor," Ichigo retaliated, though inside he wished she would wrap the towel tighter around her chest. It was kind of distracting as it was.

"Hmph," Rukia replied, taking a sip of the tea.

He glanced over at her, taking in her hunched over, soaking wet form. When she was like this it was hard not to notice how small she was. Usually Rukia was so confident and at ease with herself that it was easy to miss that she stood only 144 cm tall. Besides the whole thing with her being four and a half years older than him and having a kid, this bothered him the most. It made him feel like one of those perverts who liked girls much shorter than them so they could feel powerful or something. He knew he wasn't like that, but with all the other crap that was wrong with this crush sometimes he worried…

"You'd better take a bath before you get sick," he told her. "And yes, before you ask, walking without an umbrella in the rain _can_ get you sick. It's not just a stupid shoujo manga cliché."

She raised an eyebrow at him, gulping down some more tea, "And how would you know what's a cliché in shoujo manga or not?"

"Nice try," he said, smirking, "but I have younger sisters, remember?"

"Alright, alright, I give in!" she said, throwing her hands up in the air, but she was smiling. "Where's the bathtub?"

"Upstairs to the left."

"Just let me finish this, okay?" she said, and chugged down the rest of the tea. Ichigo tried not to stare at her neck too much.

She set the mug down on the kitchen counter and brought her hands up to message her shoulder, "Ughh, you're too nice to me," she said, smiling, "Honestly."

"Would you rather I yell at you for being stupid?" Ichigo replied, "Because I can do that too."

She rolled her eyes, but that faint smile was still there and Ichigo tried to stop it, he really did, but she was so close already that all he had to do was lean in…

He got about five centimeters away from Rukia, who's eyes had dropped to half-mast, before he realized that this was a really _bad_ idea. She wasn't just going to slap him, she'd probably break his fucking nos-

"Ichigo," she whispered, looking at him through her dark lashes, "Kiss me. Right now."

"What?" he asked, though he wasn't surprised at all; more intoxicated by being so goddamn_ close._

"You heard me," she said softly, "I'm too impatient to wait for you."

So Ichigo did. It was strange and awkward and very different from the last time. Rukia's mouth tasted like the rain and it surprised him more than it should have. Not because it was obvious, but because he hated the rain, hated it _so _much ever since that day, but it didn't seem to bother him right at this moment. Everything seemed blurry compared to the fact that he was _kissing_ Kuchiki Rukia.

She made a soft groan against his mouth that didn't sound like a bad noise, and Ichigo leaned in more and cupped his hand lightly against her cheek.

It was about now that Ichigo decided to screw all the consequences and other issues, because obviously nothing could beat this, so who cared about all that other stuff anyway?

(1) A rice dish with chicken, eggs, and onions. Literally means 'parent-child dish' (because of the egg and chicken.)

(2) Christmas is a pretty popular secular holiday in Japan. Christmas parties and the like are not uncommon, but December 25th is still a normal work day and the holiday isn't nearly as important as New Years, which is a national holiday.

**A/N: Hahaha! Yes, finally! Wow, it's been a really long time, hasn't it? I'd come up with some lame excuse, but I'll spare you this time. **

**Er…anyway, not much to say. Next chapter will probably be out in a ridiculous amount of time, so I'll apologize about that in advance. So far I think there'll be about three more chapters. **

**Please review! **


	8. Shift

Chapter Eight-

Kissing Ichigo was strange. Not in a bad way, but it was definitely unlike she had ever been kissed before. It was like in those stupid romantic comedies. It made her feel giddy, like she was wearing a sailor seifuku and the sun was setting the distance. Rukia had kissed many, many people before, but this was so innocent, so _cliché-_except not-that it almost made her laugh.

She shouldn't be kissing him. Ichigo would be better suited to someone his age, someone without a toddler to take care of, someone taller so he wouldn't have to lean so far down just to ki-

Ichigo's hands slid down to grasp her waist and Rukia stood on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck to pull him closer. He tasted warm, and mixture of safety and excitement that Rukia didn't even try to reason through, and _finally_…God, _please_, she just wanted someone, someone who would make her feel less empty, and she didn't give a damn if she was four and a half years older than him.

Her back connected with the countertop and she reached up a hand to touch his face. Her elbow hit the empty mug and it fell over with an loud clang, but thankfully didn't break. Ichigo broke away and Rukia made a displeased noise in the back of her throat. He looked at her with his warm brown eyes and then kissed her again, so much more passionately than before that Rukia wanted to-

"Onii-san!" a cheerful voice called from the bottom of the stairs. "Tadaima!"

Rukia's eyes opened in time to see Ichigo's widen and he pulled back in horror. Rukia straightened the hem of her dress compulsively as Ichigo swore under his breath.

"Er….okaeri," Ichigo called out, trying in vain to make his mussed hair lie flat, "Shit!"

"Your collar!" she hissed urgently, grabbing at the empty mug in an attempt to look casual.

"Karin, what are you just standing there for?" drifted up the voice of one of Ichigo's little sisters, following by the sound of footsteps on the stairs, "You have to get the saury into the fridge before it spoils!"

He fixed it, and just in time, as Ichigo's little sister appeared around the kitchen door with a bunch of grocery bags in each hand.

"Oh!" the little girl said upon seeing her, "I didn't know we had guests. I'm sorry about the mess."

The kitchen was spotless.

"Er, no, really, it's…" Rukia stuttered, as she had apparently gone brain-dead. "I mean, I'm Kuchiki Rukia, hajimemashite (1)," she said and bowed her head politely.

"She lives across the street," Ichigo chimed in helpfully, still looking like someone had poured boiling water on his head.

"Oh, you're the women, onii-san always baby-sits for! I knew you looked familiar," the girl (which one was she again?) said happily. "Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. (2)"

Ichigo looked uncomfortable at this statement and Rukia met his eyes briefly, before looking away as she felt her face start to heat up.

"Where's oyaji?" he asked.

"He had a few errands to run, so we came home first," she said, placing the grocery bags on the counter, "He should be here in time for dinner."

"I thought you said we had to get the stuff into the fridge, Yuzu," said the other sister, stepping forward, also carrying a few bags. She did not share Yuzu's enthusiasm and looked at Rukia quite hostilely before turning away to put some of the groceries away.

"Karin," Yuzu hissed. "Be polite!"

Karin merely scowled at her, her shoulders stiff as boards.

"So, Kuchiki-san," Yuzu said, the smile back on her face as quick as lightening, "What do you…" she paused and blinked, "You're all wet!"

"I forgot my umbrella," Rukia said sheepishly, wishing that she could just get the hell out of this situation.

"And I so I invited her in for a cup of tea," Ichigo said quickly, gesturing at the mug Rukia was holding as if Yuzu had asked for physical evidence.

"Yes!" Rukia said. "Thanks for that. Really."

Yuzu looked between the two of them with a very confused look on her face that signaled Rukia to start looking for ways to escape.

"Well, I can see you're quite busy right now," Rukia said sweetly, putting the mug back onto the counter, "so I should probably be going."

"Oh, no you don't have to-" Yuzu started, while Karin stared at her with an unreadable look on her face.

"Oh, but I wouldn't want to get in your way," she said, her mouth starting to cramp up from all the smiling, "and I should probably go home and dry off before I catch a cold, right, Kurosaki-kun?"

"Er…" Ichigo said, staring at her like she was insane.

"So thank you for the tea," Rukia said quickly, feeling more and more awkward as they all kept _staring _at her, "I'll show myself out then?"

And before any of them could say a word, Rukia gave a little bow and then walked quickly out of the kitchen and onto the landing. She was halfway down the stairs that lead to the street when she heard Ichigo call "Wait!" behind her.

She turned around and was grateful to see that he was the only one who had followed her to the door.

"Yes?" she said, impatient to get out of her wet clothes and be out of the house.

"What…what was that?" he asked, looking stony and strangely determined. "Before."

Rukia raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me if I'm regretting-"

"Well?" Ichigo asked, reddening a bit. He sounded irritable and crossed his arms over his chest in an uncomfortable manner.

So…so he really thought she was just screwing with him?

Rukia checked that the top of the stairwell was completely devoid of human presence before yanking down Ichigo's collar-just like the first time-and pressing her lips firmly against his. He made a muffled groaning noise against her mouth and curled one arm around her back, the other bracing them against the closed down.

After a few moments, Rukia broke away, checked the landing above once more, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"So," she whispered, though the effect was ruined by how breathless she sounded, "What was that again?"

"Er…" Ichigo said, arm still wrapped around her, "I think I've forgotten."

"_Damn, I'm good," _Rukia thought smugly, and, though it was hard, she released him.

"I've got to go, though," she said, smiling apologetically, "I have to pick up Kito soon."

"And get into some dry clothes," he said sternly, but the look in his eyes was soft. It was the look that Rukia would never admit to dreaming about, the one that made her knees weak.

Rukia rolled her eyes, "Yes, that too."

She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss of the chaste variety, cupping his face with her left hand.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" she asked after coming down to earth again.

"Do you really have to ask?" Ichigo said, giving her the patented 'you know better than that' look. "Now go on before you catch hypothermia."

Rukia gave a breathy laugh and then walked out the door, feeling as if she was on the verge of floating away. She crossed the street and then looked back to see Ichigo still watching her from his doorway. She gave him a quick wave and, humming under her breath, went back up to her apartment.

After closing the door behind her, she closed her eyes and leaned against it. It was like there was something boiling in her chest, something indescribable that made her want to do something incredibly childish like spin around in circles or cheer. This was…this was how life was supposed to be. Not full of triple shifts, caretakers who saw her child more than she did, and long nights staring at the ceiling wondering how she was going to pay the month's rent, insurance premiums, grocery bills or whatever it was. She shouldn't-God, she _knew_ she shouldn't- but she was sick of being alone, and it had been ages since anyone had made her feel this way. She knew it would probably all end in disaster, but at the moment she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Alright, Kuchiki Rukia," she told the ceiling. "You're going to do this. You're going to do this and you're going to be happy."

With a firm nod, she grabbed herself a new set of clothes, fresh from the laundromat, and went into the bathroom. She turned on the shower, and while she was waiting for the water to warm she turned to stare into the stained mirror. She wasn't vain; Rukia had never been vain, even in the not-so-glory-filled days. Instead she stared at her reflection with a strange consideration, a odd sense of wonder that this was what she _was. _

She smiled at herself in the mirror and spun around. It was a little spin, mind you. Not at all childish or undignified.

Really.

She picked up Kito at the usual time, hoisting him into her arms with a bit more gusto than usual.

"Hey, baby," she said, brushing his hair out of his eyes while he giggled, "Did you miss me?"

"Miss Rukia!" he chirped enthusiastically.

"You're in a good mood, today," one of the younger mothers observed, smiling at her.

"It's just the weather," Rukia told her.

The woman looked a little confused at this statement but said nothing.

"Okay, Kito," Rukia said, opening her bag. "It's raining _really _hard outside, so you're going to have to wear these, okay?"

She took out the cute raincoat and boot set that she had found for half off in one of the shops in the train station and helped him put it on. While they waited for the bus, Kito splashed around in a puddle, giggling as the water shot onto the road.

"Stay under the umbrella or put your hood back up, Kito," Rukia told him sternly, "You wouldn't want to catch hypothermia, would you?"

Kito scowled and pulled the bright yellow hood up again. He stuck out his tongue, try to catch raindrops and danced around in a circle.

"It's raining, it's raining," he sang in an adorably off-key voice.

"Good observation," Rukia said, biting back a smile, "I always knew you were a genius. Now don't go too far!"

"Rukia," Kito said, later on as they passed the clinic, "I wanna see Ichigo. See Ichigo now?"

"Tomorrow, honey," Rukia replied, smiling, "We'll see him tomorrow."

"I like Ichigo," Kito declared stoutly.

"Me too," Rukia asserted back.

"His faces are funny."

Rukia let out an undignified snort of laughter as she imagined what Ichigo would say to that and nearly dropped the umbrella.

The next night, Rukia was trying to get a particularly nasty stain out of the table after Kito's (very messy) dinner, when a knock came at the door.

"Coming," she called and gave the stain a last ineffectual swipe before throwing the rag into the sink.

She opened the door to see Ichigo, looking as if he had just rolled out of bed.

"Sorry I'm so late," he said, rubbing his eyes, "I took a nap and overslept."

"You were sleeping?" she asked, ushering him in, "Don't you have homework or something? Exams to study for?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Don't really need to study," he said, shrugging his shoulders uncomfortably, "I've always been good at school."

"_Lucky bastard,"_ she thought, but mostly affectionately.

"In that case," Rukia said, grinning, and coming to stand a little closer to him than she would have the day before, "I've got to go grocery shopping. Wanna come with?"

"Would I ever," Ichigo said sarcastically, and then smiled that crooked smile and leaned down to kiss her.

* * *

It was the oddest thing Ichigo had every done. It was just _weird_, being with someone like that. Not that he was complaining, quite to the contrary, but it certainly was _different_. And at the same time it wasn't. Neither of them had the time or inclination to go on dates or anything, and thus their schedules didn't really change. Ichigo still came over for dinner most nights and made fun of Rukia's horrible drawings. He just happened to spend more time in close proximity to her mouth. Which was nice and awesome, because let him tell you what Rukia could do with her tongue…

Ahem…

He didn't tell anyone about it. (Why would he? It was none of their business.) But for some reason he felt guilty. It was like lying, but at the same time that didn't make any sense. He didn't _want _people to find out because it would be messy and they wouldn't get it, but it wasn't like he was _ashamed _of Rukia either.

But Ichigo liked where he was right now. So he tried to ignore his father's complaints, Yuzu's disappointed looks, and Karin's hostile remarks when he missed dinner and generally spent more time at Rukia's than at home.

A few days later school closed for New Year's, and Rukia came back from the café's Christmas party with a miniature Christmas tree and some colored lights that she hung around the apartment.

"We never did anything Christmasy back at home," she said, turning off the lights looking around at the colored apartment in awe. "I always wanted a tree."

"They don't do Christmas stuff in Osaka?" Ichigo asked, surprised. "I'd have thought they'd be more Christians there. I mean, Karakura only has, like, two churches, but it's still a pretty big deal."

"Oh, no it was a big deal," Rukia said, slowly revolving in one spot to get the maximum effect of the lights. "But Byakuya always hated it. Said it was stupid to celebrate the holiday of a religion we didn't even believe in."

Ichigo hesitated for a split second. They hadn't really talked all that much about Byakuya ever since…well, _ever_.

"Have you," he started slowly, "Have you done anything about…him yet?"

Rukia stopped moving with her back to him and sighed.

"I…I don't know," she said, sounding so tired that Ichigo regretted asking, "I just got settled here. I don't really want to leave. I _really _don't want to leave." She turned to smile at him, and Ichigo was glad it was dark. "So I guess I deal with it as it comes. It's not like we've had any contact since he showed up here."

Ichigo opened his mouth to ask what she planned to do if he showed up again, but was interrupted by Kito who had knocked over the Christmas tree.

"Kito!" Rukia scolded. "Be careful. I had to pay for that!"

Ichigo gave her a skeptical look. "You paid for that? I thought you said you got it for free."

Rukia gave a telltale laugh. "Er…well, _technically _I got it for free, but you know my boss-"

"The crackhead?" Ichigo interjected.

"- he'll probably want something in return."

"What?" said Ichigo, scowling. "What do you mean 'something in return?'"

Rukia groaned. "Okay, fine, that was a lie. But it sounded good in my head!"

"You're crazy," Ichigo told her bluntly.

Rukia titled her head slightly to the right and smirked. "I thought we'd already established that," she said, inching forward.

"There never could be enough establishing with you," Ichigo told her, feeling his heart rate speed up.

"What," Rukia breathed, her lips mere centimeters from his, "is that even supposed to mean?"

"I have no idea," Ichigo said, and slid his hands around her waist as she stood on her toes to kiss him.

A few moments later, they broke apart when Kito made a small noise of disgust and stuck out his tongue at them.

"Oh, ho, is that what you think?" Rukia said, removing her hands from his shoulders, and Ichigo was pleased to note that she sounded a little breathless.

"Then what will you do if I came over and kissed you?!" Rukia announced and grabbed him. She kissed his cheeks and forehead, and tickled him until he shrieked with laughter. She blew a raspberry on his stomach, and he screamed and squirmed away.

"Quick, Ichigo," she cried, "Don't let him escape!"

"I don't know," Ichigo said, watching Kito giggle and hide under the table. "I don't think I'm _nearly_ fast enough."

"Hmph," she said, breathing heavily, eyes twinkling with a wicked light that told him nothing was forgotten. "Coward."

"It's not cowardice," Ichigo protested, throwing up his hands, "I just know when to cut my losses, is all. Besides, I don't see him, do you?"

Rukia looked all the way around the apartment, including the ceiling. "Nope, I suppose he's disappeared. We'll never find him now. Kito's a master at hide-and-seek."

She pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, pretending not to hear Kito's loud giggle.

"So, I was thinking of getting an osechi box (3), but I don't know what you guys eat around here."

"Ugh," Ichigo said, not feigning this time, "You actually _want_ to eat osechi? You really are crazy."

"I do like traditional food, you know," Rukia said. "It's not like I plan to _only_ eat osechi for three days, but it is nice to have some around."

"Crazy," Ichigo repeated.

"That bad then?" Rukia asked, smirking a bit. "You insane Kyushuans, with your weird accents and awful ramen…"

"Hey, _you're_ the one with the weird accent!" Ichigo retorted, but just then Kito got bored of hiding and jumped out from underneath the table and hugged Rukia around the waist.

"Got you!" he cried.

"Oh, there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" she exclaimed, and Ichigo may have thought she was hot, but, seriously, she was a _horrible_ actress.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Rukia said, when she was drying off some dishes later on. "Renji's going to come and visit for a few days! His flight comes in the day after tomorrow."

Ichigo wasn't really sure of what he thought about that. On one hand, Renji was Rukia's friend, and considering how isolated she had been ever since she left Osaka, he should be happy that she would get to see him. On the other, however, he didn't know whether Rukia had told him about…whatever they were. Either way, he doubted he would approve. It was a little odd, wasn't it? The thing was, Ichigo really wanted to make a good impression. The guy was obviously important to Rukia, a childhood friend of hers and apparently the only person she had trusted with her whereabouts after she became pregnant. He really seemed like a cool guy from the little he knew about him and Ichigo really didn't want it to be awkward. He didn't voice any of these concerns to Rukia, but she seemed to figure them out anyway.

"Don't worry," she told him with a grin, "I think you'll get along great with Renji. You both have the weirdest fashion sense. Not to mention the crazy hair."

"Err…thanks?"

(1) Basically means "pleased to meet you for the first time"

(2) Counter to "hajimemashite," means "nice to meet you" or more literally "please take care of me in the future."

(3) Osechi is traditional New Year's food, which is supposed to be made beforehand, so you don't have to cook during the New Years. Technically you're supposed to make your own, but they're sold in stores around New Year's as well. Also, they're a little different, depending on what region they're made in and each dish has a symbolic meaning. From what I've read, however, it's not that popular with the younger generation.

**A/N: Yeah, you don't have to tell me, I fail at getting things done on time. I think the last time I updated…was what? May? Something like that…**

**Anyway, enter Renji! I haven't decided yet, but I might have his P.O.V. in next chapter. I think it would be an interesting perspective. Also, this is my first time writing this kind of romance, so sorry if it sucks… **

**A few random things: Yes, Kito would totally get along with Inoue. They would probably giggle and make weird food together…and now I'm sorta considering making a bigger role for her… Also, I'm pretty sure that **

'**Kyushuans' is not a word, but what the hell.**

**So anyway, I apologize for the ridiculous wait, and please review and tell me what you think! **


	9. Engage

Chapter Nine-

By the time Renji got to Karakura, he was exhausted. His flight from Osaka was only one hour, but he had to take two trains, neither of them Shinkansen, to get to Karakura. All in all, it took four and a half hours and he was sick of staring out the window at fields of rice plants and the occasional sweet potato. It was colder than he expected too, though that was mostly because he had never been to Kyushu before and had sort of assumed that it was going to be all palm trees and watermelon like in the commercials for that weird thin udon.

Rukia had told him Karakura wasn't very big and while Renji didn't exactly know what he was expecting, he had to admit he was surprised once he got off the train. There weren't many big buildings or chain stores as far as he could tell, but there were a couple shops inside the train station and several buses lined up across the street. There were more people in the street than he expected and he saw at least three different high school uniforms which probably meant that there was more than one school. He got on the bus Rukia told him to and read through the directions she had given him one more time. A mother and her two small children got on after him and the kids gaped at him (specifically his hair) until their mother made them look away. Renji smirked and turned up the volume of the rock music on his mp3 player just to be annoying. After two stops, he got off and walked a block north to find himself in front of the apartment building that he was pretty sure was Rukia's. The man at reception raised his eyebrows at his appearance when he entered the building, but didn't say anything. There wasn't an elevator so Renji took the stairs and it was only then that he began to feel nervous.

Rukia was his friend, his _best _friend, and he hadn't seen her in almost three years. Sure he'd talked to her on the phone a lot since then, but it wasn't the same. She had this whole new life-she had a two year old kid that he'd never even met!-and Renji wasn't sure how he was going to fit into it.

There was also the whole teenager situation that he wasn't so sure what to think of. He'd surely be around too and Renji honestly had no idea what to say to him. This in itself wasn't a particularly new development as Renji had always been awkward around Rukia's boyfriends, but that had been because they were assholes, not four years _younger_ than her.

He adjusted his duffel bag over his shoulder when he finally got to the fourth floor. Rukia's room was only a few doors down from the stairwell, and he hesitated for a second.

"_This is ridiculous, Abarai," _he thought and knocked twice.

"Coming!" came Rukia's voice from behind the door almost immediately.

Renji swallowed as the door knob turned and he came face to face with Rukia.

"Renji!" she cried, barreling forward to hug him tightly around the middle, "It's so good to see you!"

She seemed smaller than he remembered, though he wasn't sure if it was because his memory was faulty, or she had actually lost weight. Probably a bit of both. She was wearing a sort of sundress with polka dots on it and flats. Her nails were unpainted, her hair was much shorter, and there wasn't a speck of makeup on her face. Renji doubted many of her old so-called friends would even recognize her like this.

"Oof," Renji exclaimed, hugging her back. "I would assure you the feeling is mutual, but unfortunately you have crushed my lungs. I have to go die now."

She glared up at him, but her look quickly melted into a smile.

"Come in, come in," she said stepping back and beckoning him into the apartment. "I didn't start dinner yet because I didn't know how late you were going to be, so it might be a while."

"It's cool," Renji said, putting his shoes on the shoe rack and looking around.

It was nicer than he expected. Sure it was only about half the size of his apartment in Osaka, but is was clean and there was a large bag of rice on the counter next to the stove that showed she at least wasn't having problems buying food. The kitchen and the main room sort of blended together with two doors to his left, a small bathroom and the bedroom, but there were colorful drawings stuck to the fridge with magnets and a few picture frames on the walls. There was no one else in the apartment and Renji opened his mouth to ask about it, but Rukia beat him to it.

"Oh, Kito's in the bedroom. I'll go get him." she said cheerfully and then frowned, looking him over. "You brought a sleeping bag, right, I told you I didn't have a couc-"

"Yeah, it's in the bag," he replied. "It's one of those that can be wrapped up really small. Er…you don't have to wake him up, I'll see him later."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "No, I made him a fort out of the blankets and pillows. He's been in there for _hours_ playing with his stuffed animals. It'll do him good to get out."

She turned and went into the bedroom, and Renji heard her talking softly with words he couldn't quite decipher. After a minute of what he presumed was spent convincing her son to leave the fort, Rukia exited her bedroom, a toddler in her arms.

Renji had seen pictures of Kito before; Rukia had sent a couple every once and a while, but none recently. His hair was longer and thicker, and he was a lot bigger than he was in the latest photograph.

"Kito," she said softly, adjusting him on her hip. "This is Renji, nee? I told you about him remember? He's a very good friend. Can you say hi?"

"Hey, Kito," Renji said, crouching a bit to see him at eyelevel. "You probably don't remember this, but I talked to you on the phone once. Well, I did the talking, you just kind of giggled."

The boy looked up at him with wide eyes, Rukia's eyes, and then lifted his tiny arm and pointed at him.

"Red," he said decisively and made a grab for his hair.

Rukia snorted with laughter. "Now that's not very nice," she said, but her reprimand didn't sound very convincing. "No pulling hair, remember? He always used to do that to Ichigo," she said, turning to him, "drove him nearly insane."

"Mmm," Renji said, not really wanting to talk about her new boyfriend. "Well, it's good he knows his colors at least, huh?"

"True," Rukia said happily, stroking her son's bangs out of his eyes. "Now, c'mon Kito. Say 'Renji.' Re-n-ji."

"I say Lenji!"

"You do, huh?" Renji said, laughing despite himself. "Eh, that's probably close enough."

"He'll get it eventually," Rukia promised. "And then he won't stop saying it for weeks."

She smiled at him, a soft sort of smile that seemed odd on her face, probably, Renji realized, because she had never smiled like that before.

"You're probably hungry," she said, setting Kito down onto the floor. "I'll start dinner."

Before Renji could offer to help, she leant down and whispered, "Howabout you show Renji your stuffed bunny rabbit, huh?" in Kito's ear

"Bunny rabbit!" Kito repeated enthusiastically and rushed back into the bedroom.

"You bought him a stuffed rabbit?" Renji asked. "Why am I not surprised…"

"It was cute!" Rukia protested. "And half off!"

Renji rolled his eyes, but inwardly was grateful. At least in this she was still the same. Before he could make a sarcastic comment, Kito reappeared holding a worn looking stuffed rabbit complete with button eyes and unnecessary patches.

"Runny Babbit!" he exclaimed, thrusting his small fist into the air.

"Bunny. Rabbit." Rukia corrected, measuring out rice and getting a pot from a cabinet to fill with water.

"Either way, it's…er….a great bunny," Renji finished lamely, acutely aware that he had no idea how to talk to kids.

Kito giggled and presented his stuffed animal to him proudly. Renji reached out to take it, but at the last second Kito snatched it away, hugging the toy to his small chest possessively.

"No!" he said, crossly with his eyebrows furrowed. "Mine!"

"Kito," Rukia said in a tone of voice that kind of made Renji want to hide, "_Share._"

Kito scowled, but eventually relented and handed his rabbit over to Renji.

"Thank you, Kito," Rukia said, all sweetness again, but Kito's scowl lingered.

"Cool rabbit, kid," Renji said, handing the rabbit back and tentatively ruffled the boy's hair, "Got any other toys you can show me?"

Kito brightened at this.

"Lenji!" he declared, "I show you tnuck!"

"'Tnuck?'" Renji repeated, looking at Rukia in askance.

"He means 'truck.'" Rukia explained as she cut up onions and peppers. "It's just one of those works I can't get him to pronounce right. Ichigo said it's normal though, and should probably go away as he gets older."

Renji raised an eyebrow. "'Ichigo said' huh?"

"He has two little sisters," Rukia explained, not reading into his tone. "He practically raised them himself too, after his mom-"

She cut herself off and quickly changed the subject, but Renji was very aware of what she had been about to say next.

Strangely enough, it made him feel better about the situation. Like Rukia, he had never known his parents. He had even lived with Rukia and Hisana for a while, but had mostly grown up in foster care. While his experience in the system was hardly reflective of all the pop culture horror stories, Renji still felt like he had mostly raised himself. It was something that made him sad sometimes, but also something he was very proud of. And while it didn't really seem to make any logical sense, Renji felt like he could trust people more if they'd had similar hardships in their lives.

"Don't you have to go to your night job?" Renji asked after a while, glancing at the clock.

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Rukia said, sounding surprised. "I got a raise at the café, enough so that I could quit. It's been great; now I actually get enough sleep every night."

Renji has been worried about her night job even before it caused her to collapse, so this was a relief. Renji smiled and then asked if there was anything he could do to help and she quickly put him to work cutting up some fish.

He had dinner with just Rukia and Kito in that tiny apartment, a welcome relief after his long trip. Rukia told him stories about Kito's escapades at daycare and he told her about two of his mates from school, Ikkaku and Yumichika, who were always good for laughs. Ichigo's name came up every now and then, but Renji ignored the temptation to grill Rukia about him. He would just have to meet this Kurosaki Ichigo for himself.

* * *

Rukia was nervous as she left for the morning, carrying Kito in one arm as she locked the door. Renji was still asleep and she wouldn't see him until around five-thirty, but he had assured her that he had a lot of homework to do anyway.

Even after she dropped Kito off the anxiety wouldn't go away, and she spent most of the day glancing at the clock edgily.

"Are you alright, Kuchiki-san?" Hinamori asked worriedly, after Rukia nearly dropped a tray of dishes for the third time. "You seem…distracted."

"I'm fine," Rukia assured her and tried to focus on seeming less troubled.

It wasn't that she didn't want Renji around, quite the opposite really. He was her best friend, one of the only true friends she'd had in her life and it was great to see him after almost three years.

It was just that…well, Rukia really, _really_, wanted him to be on board with the whole Ichigo thing. She could tell he wasn't too certain about the situation, and several times the night before she had wanted to say something, _anything_, to get across to him how much Ichigo meant to her, but she was too much of a coward. Renji had always been uneasy around her boyfriends and she knew it was a little strange, but she really wanted him to like Ichigo, or at least understand that Ichigo was good for her and Kito. He would be meeting Ichigo later that afternoon and the possibility that it wouldn't end well made her stomach turn. Ichigo seemed to be aware of this possibility as well, though it was probably because of some guy thing, rather than the fact that he knew Renji's history with her previous boyfriends.

So it was with more than a bit of trepidation that she signed out from work, picked up Kito, and made her way home.

In the end, she needn't have worried at all, as Ichigo chose to wear a Chouseishin (1) t-shirt, a TV show Renji was apparently obsessed with and they spent the first hour or so of their acquaintance arguing over who had the best battle suits (what the fuck?) and bitching about the cancellation of the series.

"You two are the biggest nerds I have ever met," Rukia told them flatly, as she refilled their cups of tea.

"She doesn't understand its awesomeness," Renji said mournfully, while Ichigo shook his head in woe, "C'mon, there's time travel, aliens, tons of fight scenes, hot chicks in skin tigh-"

"Renji!"

"Okay, fine….uh, where was I?"

"Hot chicks?" Ichigo said innocently and Renji glared at him.

"And…plot twists!" he continued, "Lots of plot twists! What more could you want in a show?"

"Besides bunnies," Ichigo cut in before she could answer, "You don't have to tell us. Believe me, _we know_."

"Hey!" Rukia protested, "That's not the only thing I think about, you know."

They just blinked back at her, expressions carefully blank.

"Don't look at me like that!"

"Second year of primary school," Renji retorted, "You nearly failed maths because you wouldn't stop drawing bunnies in the margins of your homework."

"Kito's bib," Ichigo added helpfully.

"Middle school: you visited the pet store everyday to look at the rabbits walking home from school."

"The lady at the daycare center asked you why Kito knew the word rabbit, but not any other animal words just two weeks ago."

"Last year of high school," Renji continued, clearly on a roll, "you got in a fight with Byakuya was because he wouldn't let you have a pet bunny."

"And not to mention that horrendous wallpaper you were looking at a couple months ago."

Renji turned to look at him in shock, "Dude…_wallpaper_?" he questioned, looking physically ill. "_Seriously?_"

"Yup," Ichigo answered, nodding gravely. "It was awful. I only just managed to convince her out of it."

"It wasn't that bad." Rukia scowled. "The walls here are falling apart and I mean, it would have looked nice with the…curtains?"

"You don't have any curtains." Renji snorted and Rukia threw her hands up in defeat.

"Fine, fine, you win," she said, rolling her eyes. "But at least I'm not the ones who spent forty-five minutes discussing the aerodynamics of giant robot…thingies."

"They're actually called "Ultra Star Gods'" Ichigo said solemnly, before he and Renji cracked up.

Rukia closed her eyes and unsuccessfully suppressed a giggle, and then Kito started laughing, and by the end of it all Renji had nearly fallen out of his chair twice and Rukia was holding onto the table for dear life.

"Ultra Star _what_?" she choked. "Who the hell came up with that name?"

"I have no…" Ichigo paused to gasp for breath, "…idea, I swear!"

"Well, Chouseishin was produced by Toho, with some help from Konami," Renji said, rubbing tears out of his eyes, "Don't ask me why I know that."

"Nerd," Rukia giggles, punching him lightly on the shoulder, "It must be your fellow physics students who've corrupted you, because you've completely lost any badass…ness you ever had."

"Hey," he protested, "I'm still pretty badass. I'm just more of the…studying…type."

"I think I'm going to have to agree with her on this point," Ichigo said, apparently having regained the ability to speak, "But if it makes you feel better, you still _look _pretty badass. Well, more like a yakuza, but-"

"I hate you both." Renji muttered. "But not you kid." he amended, reaching out to pat Kito's head. "You I can live with. The rest of these idiots…pshh! They probably do stupid stuff like make you eat your vegetables and brush your teeth, am I right?"

"Vegetables is yucky!" Kito replied seriously.

"_Are_ yucky," she and Ichigo said at the same time, and Ichigo looked vaguely embarrassed.

She winked at him and he rolled his eyes back at her, an exchange that was not missed by Renji.

"Rukia, I hungry!" Kito whined. "Want dinner."

"Is it really that time?" Ichigo exclaimed, fishing out his cell phone. "Well, I better get going. I'll leave you two to catch up mor-"

"Not so fast," Rukia interrupted, grabbing his sleeve as he stood up, "You have to eat dinner with us."

For nearly the first time since he entered the room he looked awkward, bringing his left hand up to hold the back of his neck.

"Err, well I wouldn't want to intrude on-"

"You're staying."

"-and well, I have a bit of homework to fini-"

"You're _staying_."

"I have a test tomorrow on which my entire life depends?"

"You. Are. Staying."

"Give it up, dude," Renji said, leaning back to prop his feet on the table surface. "Surrender now or the full wrath of Kuchiki Rukia will be brought down upon you."

"You only have two chairs?" Ichigo tried.

"Then we can share," Rukia said sweetly.

"Meaning you can elbow me whenever you want."

"Now why would you ever accuse me of such a thing?" Rukia gasped in _horror _(really) and Renji snorted. "Now sit."

"I guess I'll just have to stay," Ichigo said in mock-resignation, but he was smiling just a little bit and Rukia really wanted to kiss him just then.

She didn't, of course, and started planning a dinner in to which all of them chipped in, even Kito, and it was more fun than she'd had in a while.

The next two days she spent working, but then Sunday came around, her day off, and she gave Renji the not-so-grand tour of Karakura, which took under an hour. She, Renji, Ichigo, and Kito went out that night to eat dinner at a restaurant, something she hadn't done in ages. He and Ichigo seemed to be getting along great, and Kito loved him as well, following him wherever he went around the small apartment, repeating his name over and over again as she'd predicted. She wished he could have stayed for New Year's itself, but he had to get back to Osaka for some really important lab that he had to complete in order to not fail out of university or something.

On that last morning, she went with him to the train station to see him off, having called in sick to work. She really needed the money, but this was important and she was going to go in right after his train left.

"It was really great seeing you," Rukia said, smiling at him, "Come and stay anytime. Though, hopefully I'll have a couch the next time you're here."

"I'm glad to see you're doing okay," Renji replied. "I was worried at first. I know you said you were alright, but I feel better after seeing you."

"Yeah, I…" she sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "This is as…as good as it's been. I'm…I'm really happy here. I mean, money's a little tight, but…" She swallowed. "I always said that if Byakuya found me I would run, but I don't want to now. It's been really great here and I want to stay."

"It's this Ichigo guy too, isn't it?" Renji asked, sounding amused.

Rukia rolled her eyes, "Alright, _yes_, it's him too, but I wasn't going to mention it because I know it makes you uncomfortable."

"He's not that bad," Renji muttered, looking embarrassed, shifting his duffel bag to his other shoulder. "A lot different than I thought. Looks a lot older too, which is one of those things that probably shouldn't matter, but does anyway."

Rukia stared at him, "Renji…are you trying to give me your blessing?"

"No!" Renji nearly shouted out. "Ughh, don't say it like that, it's so wishy-washy. I…I just _approve_ of him, alright. I think he's good for you. And Kito."

"Yeah," Rukia said, butterflies dancing in her stomach. The good kind of butterflies. "He is good for me. I know it's weird, but I really like him."

It was really cheesy and she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she said it, but it was important to her that Renji understood this.

"He has good taste in TV shows," Renji said, still sounding a little abashed. "It's really hard for me not to approve of someone who likes Chouseishin."

Rukia gave a little laugh, still finding it funny that the tough boy she had known all those years ago could blab on about a rather geeky TV show for hours on end.

"And I guess he has good taste in girls too," he said after a pause, amusement back.

"Thank you," Rukia said, suppressing a smirk. "It's nice to see you admitting my superior charm."

Renji rolled his eyes and hugged her tightly. Rukia held on a bit longer than she usually would, only letting go when the train rolled into the station.

"Take care of yourself," Renji told her. "If you ever need anything, just call, okay?"

"Okay," she promised. "I will. Good luck with your studies, make sure you get better scores than all those over privileged jerks you go to school with."

"They're not all that bad," Renji protested, but smiled. "Say goodbye to Kito for me and I'll call you soon!"

He stepped onto the train and she waved until it pulled out of the station and became a mere speck on the horizon.

She went to work after that, feeling a little down, though nothing compared to what Hinamori must be feeling as the girl had apparently slipped and hit her forehead very hard on the sidewalk, leaving a nasty looking bruise. Her mood improved after one of the other workers lent her some cover-up and she had no problem making jokes about it. The girl definitely had a clumsy streak and was probably used to it by now, but Rukia was rather envious of her in a odd sort of way. She had never been the type of person able to make jokes easily, much less jokes about herself like Hinamori did. Sometimes she wished she had her easygoing manner, but then again Hinamori always had a hard time saying no to the guys that hit on her at work. Rukia had never had such problems.

She met Ichigo later that day to look for a heater for her apartment. It was definitely colder in Osaka, but her apartment was getting chilly and despite her pleas the landlord refused to turn up the heat. They went to this rundown looking secondhand shop filled with aisles and aisles of old appliances and spent nearly an hour rooting through them until they found a suitable one. It took the both of them to carry it up the stairs to her apartment and by the time they finally got it in the room, Rukia felt like she hardly needed it anymore.

"Thank God, that's finally over with," she said, collapsing into one of the chairs. "If there was one more floor, I think I would've thrown myself out the window."

"They really should get an elevator in this building," Ichigo complained, panting heavily.

"Hey," she said and she kicked him in the shins.

"What was that for?"

She stood and smiled at him, wiping sweat of her forehead. "Thanks for helping."

Ichigo looked rather embarrassed at this, but he looped an arm around her waist when she stretched up to kiss him and Rukia knew that all of it was worth having this.

(1) A post-apocalyptic TV show involving giant robots produced by Toho Company, Ltd. That's pretty much all you need to know.

**A/N: FINALLY!!!! Ugh, this chapter was just awful. I could not figure out a way to have Ichigo and Renji meet that wasn't horribly awkward and I just can't write awkwardness. At least not that brand of awkwardness. The idea I ended up doing was resonance and d's, so kudos to her!**

**Otherwise, I was kind of being lazy waiting for inspiration to hit for this chapter, instead of just sitting down and forcing myself to write this. Which I ended up doing because otherwise it would have never gotten done.**

**We're nearing the final stretch for VRaSB (weird, I know!) There'll probably be only about three or four more chapters, depending on how long the next part is going to take. Hopefully, I'll make it before you guys all die of old age…^_^; **

**Anyway, thank you so much for your continued support in the face of my supreme laziness…I mean, Writer's Block and please review!**


	10. Complications

Chapter Ten-

On the first day of the new year, Ichigo got up at 8 am. He took a quick shower, shaved, and then tiptoed down the stairs into the kitchen. His dad and little sisters were all still sleeping and he didn't want to wake them up. In fact, he should probably still be sleeping, especially since he got to bed at 3am the previous night, having stayed up to watch the fireworks with Rukia from the top of her apartment building. Among other things.

But he'd made his New Year's Resolution and he intended to go through with it.

Ichigo grabbed several days worth of newspapers out of the recycling and threw them on the table. He started up the water heater and rice cooker, and fished some tamagoyaki out of the fridge, sitting down at the kitchen table in front of the newspapers.

Ichigo opened them up and turned to the Classified section with a purpose.

He had been thinking about it for a while, but the last few days...meeting Renji had solidified his resolve.

He needed to get a job. It was not that he needed the money; his father's practice, while small, provided more than enough for his family to live quite comfortably. Lately, though, he felt that he should be more...accountable. He was only sixteen, but he couldn't be a child forever. He had to grow up, had to take responsibility. He'd been taking care of his sisters for seven years, been doing things halfway since he was nine, but now it was time to take the next step.

His girlfriend was almost twenty-one, with a two year-old child, and he needed to...it wasn't like he was going to give her the money (she'd never accept it,) but he needed to be...productive. He couldn't just laze around while she worked so hard just to make ends meet.

He had school, but that just wasn't enough. He needed to do something bigger, more useful, more...adult. Besides, Ochi-sensei kept bugging him about not being in any clubs, but she'd back off if he told her he had a part-time job.

He knew his father wouldn't be happy with him working during the school year, wanting him to focus all his energies on his studies, but he'd just have to deal with it. (1) If Rukia could work long hours, six days a week, then he sure as hell could get a job a couple afternoons after school.

He ended up applying to a few places over the next few days, mostly low-paying, low-skill jobs. The economy wasn't great, but one of the good things about living in a developed country with a declining population was that they'd always need people to do the dirty work.

About a week after school started again, he got a call from a soba eatery saying that he could start as a dishwasher in a few days. He took the offer, of course, realizing that it was likely the only offer he was going to get.

He hadn't even told her that he was looking, so Rukia was pretty surprised when he told her about the job.

"You got a job?" she asked incredulously. "Doing what?"

"Dishwasher," he replied, shrugging his shoulders casually.

They were sitting on a table at the laundromat, watching Rukia's laundry swirl around in front of them, which is why he remembered to tell her in the first place.

"It's not great," he continued, trying not to laugh as he saw a glimpse of Rukia's favorite pair of bunny underwear through the glass. "But beggars can't be choosers, especially if this beggar is sixteen. And it's not like I'm completely adverse to washing dishes anyw-"

"By which you mean you're incredibly anal about it and thus will do a great job," Rukia finished, raising an eyebrow playfully. "Am I right?"

Ichigo scowled at her, leaning back on his elbows so she had to angle her head backwards to look at him, "I'm not _anal_ about washing dishes," he protested. "I'm just thorough. You might as well not do something if you're not going to do it well."

"True," Rukia said like it was a comeback. "Why are you doing this again? Don't you have to study for school? Or, you know, university entrance exams?"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "In case you've forgotten, cradle robber-san," Rukia blushed and he turned back to look at the timer on the laundry machine, "I'm only a first year and don't have to worry about entrance exams for a least another year."

Rukia got over her embarrassment quickly, though, and regarded him expectantly. "Well," she demanded, "Spill. Why are you in such a hurry to join the masses of the employed and fatigued?"

She looked worried all of the sudden. "Something didn't happen with the clinic, did it?"

"No, no," Ichigo assured her, waving a hand flippantly at her, "Everything's fine."

She frowned and then reached up to touch the side of his face gently, turning his head towards her so that he had no choice but to make eye-contact with her.

"Then why?" she asked curiously.

He looked at her, her wide gray eyes, her head tilted slightly in puzzlement, the way her hair lay on the curve of her neck, how she sat on the table cross-legged, like a child, even though she was wearing a dress, and feeling the weight of her palm against his face, he made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat.

"I dunno." he said, "It just seemed like something I should do."

He kissed her then, feeling her mouth curve into a smile, and it felt like winning the lottery.

An elderly woman cleared her throat loudly a few seconds later and Ichigo tried to be embarrassed, but failed rather miserably.

They pulled apart and Ichigo eyed the timer of the laundry machine impatiently. It only read a little over ten minutes, but they still had to wait for the dryer.

"One day, when I'm rich and famous, I'm going to own my very own washer and dryer," Rukia said glumly, as if reading his thoughts.

Ichigo successfully suppressed a smile at her over-dramatic statement. "Or you could just take me up on my offer to come use mine."

"And risk the wrath of your little sister, who, if you've forgotten, hates my guts?"

Ichigo winced. It was true that Karin had a habit of being overly-hostile whenever Rukia happened to be over...which was three times now and doubtful to be any more than that. He honestly had no clue what her problem was. Maybe she was going through puberty. At 10 years old.

Well, it wasn't like he felt all that comfortable bringing Rukia over when he was technically lying to them about the exact nature of their relationship anyway. Whatever. The important thing was that his dad never, _ever_ found out.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he muttered. "She's been a complete brat lately, I should probably talk to her."

"It's not like I care all that much," Rukia said, resting her head against a dryer next to the table, even though it was obvious that she was lying. "It just turns into an awkward situation _really_ quickly."

Ichigo wanted to say something to make her feel better about the whole thing, but he couldn't think of anything that wasn't overly cheesy or just plain stupid. He did make a mental note to talk to Karin sooner than later, however.

He knocked on his younger sister's door later that night after dinner while Yuzu and his dad were washing the dishes downstairs.

"Hey, it's me," he said, leaning his forearm nonchalantly against the wall. "Can I come in?"

"Yup," Karin replied and he opened the door to find her at her desk, doing what looked like her daily kanji homework.

"Is this important?" she asked, not looking up from her paper. "Because I've really got to learn this by tomorrow. I have a test."

He raised an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic procrastination, but decided not to comment.

"Yeah, it is," he said, and she looked up at him impatiently. "Look, I've been meaning to talk to you about this for a while. You need to lay off Rukia, okay, because it's getting ridiculous."

Karin immediately stiffened and turned back to her homework, "I haven't done anything to her," she groused in what was obvious a change in temperament for the worse.

"The last time she came, you told her to _go away_," Ichigo said incredulously, taken aback at her outright lie. "And the time before, when she came to borrow some rice vinegar, you told her we didn't have any while Yuzu went to run and get it! You're acting like a complete brat, Karin."

This seemed to galvanize her into action. "_I'm _acting like a brat? You're the one who is hardly even home for dinner anymore! I'm not the one who skips out on my family to hang out with a girl who got herself knocked up before she was even _twenty_!"

Ichigo gritted his teeth in annoyance, but resisted the urge to say something he might regret later.

"She's my boss," he eventually decided on, even though he had refused to accept any money from Rukia nearly six months ago, "and you're acting like a little kid when I know you're more mature than thi-"

"Oh, yeah, and you spend all your time with your 'boss?'" Karin exclaimed, slamming her pencil down on her desk and getting to her feet angrily. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

Cold fear began to permeate his chest and he felt his palms beginning to sweat, "Well, okay, fine, she's a friend, too," Ichigo said quickly, "which means you should make more of an effort to at least be civi-"

"Do you think," Karin repeated slowly, cutting off his feeble lie, "that I'm stupid?"

Ichigo closed his mouth and swallowed.

This seemed to make her even madder and she shoved her chair backwards, causing it to bang loudly against her desk.

"I'm not an idiot, Ichi-ni," she snarled. "I saw you! I saw you kissing her the first time you brought her home. Yuzu and oyaji might be stupid enough to fall for your lies, but I'm sure as hell not!"

She grabbed up her pencil and workbook and stormed past him towards the door.

"Karin-" Ichigo started, wanting her to understand, but she slammed the door behind her before he could say another word, leaving him staring at Yuzu's mistreated stuffed bear sitting on her and Karin's shared bookshelf.

"Shit," he said aloud. "Shit, shit, _shit_."

* * *

Rukia drummed her fingers nervously against the counter as she held her prepaid cell phone against her ear nervously. It had been frustrating enough to find herself in this situation for the first million times, but she thought she'd been done looking frantically for babysitters when Kito had started going to daycare.

"Moshi moshi?" a feminine voice said on the other end of the line.

"Hinamori-san!" Rukia said desperately, so relieved that the other girl had picked up, "It's Kuchiki Rukia from work!"

"Oh, Kuchiki-san," Hinamori said, perking up immediately. "Sorry, I didn't know who you were, I must not have your number...What's up?"

"I am so, so sorry," Rukia said to prelude her request, "but I have to ask a really big favor from you. I made a doctor's appointment for this afternoon a couple months ago, thinking that Kito would be in daycare, but it turns out that it's been closed because of a nasty flu that's going around. I can't reschedule because it'll take months to get another appointment and I already took off work..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Hinamori said with a startled laugh. "Calm down, you're going too fast! Take a deep breath, you don't want to kill yourself! A doctor's appointment, huh... Ohmygosh, you're not sick or anything, are you?"

"Oh, no," Rukia said, running a nervous hand through her hair and pacing a bit. "I just haven't been in a while, pretty much since right after Kito was born. My...My pregnancy wasn't exactly a smooth one, so I was supposed to come back for a checkup a few months afterward, but then I had to move and I find a new doctor. Usually I'd get my boyfriend to watch him, but he just started at a new job... And I heard you really like kids and you always seemed to get along with Kito, so..."

"It's fine, it's fine," Hinamori said, laughingly. "It's my day off today, so I can totally watch him for you."

"It'll just be for an hour," Rukia said, relief relaxing her previously stiff body. "Two-two and a half at the most. I should be back by seven at the latest, I promise."

"So... I should come over sometime this afternoon?" Hinamori asked and Rukia almost replied that she had planned on bringing Kito over to her place, but stopped herself at the last second.

"Around four would be good," she said decisively. "I'll text you the address and thank you _so_ much for doing this. You have no idea how much this helps."

"It's fine," Hinamori said modestly, "I haven't seen him for a while anyways and he's so cute!"

"Thanks," Rukia said gratefully.

"No problem," Hinamori said cheerfully. "Ja, nee!"

Rukia closed her phone and leaned against the counter, exhaling heavily. Crisis averted.

Hinamori came a few minutes before four as promised, wearing a bright, frilly outfit and a bandage around her right forearm.

"What happened to your arm?" Rukia asked after Hinamori took of her shoes and they'd settled at her kitchen table for a cup of tea.

Hinamori groaned and cupped her head in her hands. "It's really embarrassing," she said, "I'm _sooo_ clumsy."

Rukia started to grin at the other girl's antics, "C'mon," she said in amusement, "It can't be that bad."

"It was," Hinamori bemoaned, shaking her head, "I was cooking and I didn't turn off the gas. I basically stuck my arm in the fire. But only for a second," she said quickly, seeing the look on Rukia's face, "My boyfriend got me some cream for it and it's already healing."

"Your boyfriend?" Rukia repeated.

Hinamori's eyes widened. "I haven't told you about him? That's so funny because everyone always tells me to shut up because I always talk about him. Yeah, we've been dating for a year and a couple months and we moved in together...right before I met you, actually. He's so kind and smart..."

Rukia swore she saw sparkles in Hinamori's eyes.

"And you know, he's a bit older than me, but I'm hoping once he gets a promotion at his job we'll..."

She trailed off hopefully and Rukia refrained from commenting on the wisdom of getting married at her age (Hinamori was still only 19.)

"Well, enough about me," Hinamori said, laughing and turning towards her. "What about you? I didn't know you had a boyfriend either. What's he like?"

"Er," Rukia said, tempted to actually tell her for a split-second. "Actually, I kind of have to go now to catch the bus."

"Oh, okay," Hinamori said, unfazed. "Do you want me to make him dinner, or..." She gestured at Kito who was coloring a picture of a Mt. Fuji quietly on the floor, small brow furrowed in concentration.

"No, it's fine," Rukia said, getting to her feet. "If he's hungry there's snacks in the cabinets and I'll just feed him when I get home. You have everything you need?"

Hinamori nodded and Rukia crouched down next to Kito

"Hey, baby," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to out for a little while, so you be good and listen to Hinamori-san, okay?"

Kito did not look up at her, but let out a frustrated breath of air.

"Busy," he grumbled.

"Kito," Rukia said warningly and he looked up at her resentfully.

"Be good, okay," she said sternly.

"Okay," he replied in a small voice and she stood up and grabbed her coat and shoes.

"He's been into coloring real lately, so I doubt he'll want to do anything real strenuous," she told Hinamori as the girl looked down to inspect Kito's drawing. "But just in case, you can take him to the park, if you want."

"Whatever he wants to do," Hinamori said cheerfully. "Have fun!"

Rukia had a face at the prospect of her appointment and then shut the door behind her.

She thought back to her words as she sat on the bus. Kito really had been spending a lot of time drawing lately. The helpers at the daycare had told her that he wanted to do little else. Maybe she should buy him a paint set for Children's Day.

But that was four months from now, and she steered her mind toward topics a little more pertinent to the present. Like Hinamori. She hadn't been exactly happy at having to rely on someone who could obviously not say no to her small son, but...it was only one afternoon. Hinamori would be fine. As long as she didn't accidentally manage to stab herself with a colored pencil or something.

Rukia managed to smother her laughter at the thought and leaned further back in her seat.

Unohana-sensei (2) seemed like a nice woman, a bit overly formal, but not all together that bad. She gave her a standard checkup and then told her a bunch of things Rukia already knew: to eat more, get more sleep, try to cut back on stressful situations (like she did it on purpose.)

"So you say you haven't been to see a physician since your six-week postpartum checkup?" Unohana-sensei said, looking down at her clipboard, "That's wasn't wise, what if you had had complications? Next time make sure to see a doctor regularly aft-"

Rukia couldn't contain herself and let out a snort of laughter, "Next time?" she quoted, "Didn't you read what the other doctor wrote," gesturing to the clipboard, "There isn't going to be a next time."

Unohana gave her a dry look. "The main reason your pregnancy was so difficult was your poor diet, your lack of rest, and your naturally small stature, Kuchiki-san. It even appears..." The woman looked down at the clipboard. "...that at one point in your pregnancy you even _lost_ weight."

Rukia winced. Those were times she would like to forget.

"Obviously, there's nothing you can do about your body type, but most of your problems were due to your age and outside factors," the doctor continued professionally. "The fact that you spent most of your day on your feet was probably the main cause of your severe backaches and your lack of nutrition was probably the reason your son was born slightly premature."

Rukia resisted the urge to say something nasty.

"I understand that there were economic reasons for all of this," she said, which was basically a nice way of saying that she knew Rukia was dirt poor, "and by your current weight, I would guess your situation has not changed significantly over the past few years."

Rukia looked away and glared at a poster on the wall about high cholesterol. "No," she muttered. "Not really."

"So I would suggest not becoming pregnant anytime in the near-future," she stated. "But you're young, Kuchiki-san. As long as you put on some weight and don't work as much, there's no reason you wouldn't be able to give birth a healthy baby in the future."

Rukia shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't something she'd really given much thought to.

"You don't plan on having another child?" Unohana noted perceptively.

"I think one's enough for me," Rukia said honestly. "And I'm not...you know, sexually active at the moment, so that's not really going to be a problem."

"Just so you should be aware that it's a possibility, then," Unohana said, making a note on her clipboard. "After all, you're only...Oh, you'll be twenty-one in a few days," The woman smiled pleasantly at her, "Happy Birthday."

"Er, thanks," Rukia said awkwardly.

"That's about it then," Unohana said, smile fading to be replaced with a mask of professionalism, "Do you have any other questions?"

Rukia hesitated for a second.

"I..." she started dubiously. "I have stretch marks, you know. A...A lot of them. As you can tell," she spread her arms out, "I lost all of the weight I'd gained during my pregnancy pretty quickly. Th-They've not nearly as noticeable now, but they're still, you know, there. And, well, you saw them. It's just that it's been more than two years and I was wondering-"

"If they're going to go away?" Unohana finished.

"Or if there's something I could do to make them go away," Rukia added, feeling a bit stupid and vain.

They had changed from a dark purple to a silvery white over the past few years, but she had to admit that she was still self-conscious about them.

"Anything with tretinoin in it usually works. It's the main ingredient in a lot of acne treatments," she clarified at Rukia's confused look, "You're not still breastfeeding, are you?"

"I never did," Rukia said, shaking her head. "Tretinoin," she repeated, "Okay, I'll remember that."

Maybe she could find a cheap acne treatment at the convenience store that would get rid of the dratted marks for good. Because, after all, she'd rather not have Ichigo see them when he-

"Anything else you'd like to know?" the doctor asked her and Rukia blushed.

_"Just the age of consent in the prefecture of Fukuoka," _she thought sheepishly.

"No, I'm good," she said, getting to her feet, "Thank you."

She took the bus home afterwards and found Ichigo and Hinamori sitting at the kitchen while Kito showed them his ever-growing collection of drawings. Crap.

"Oh, Kuchiki-san, you're back!" Hinamori exclaimed while Ichigo simply raised a hand in greeting. "I hope it's okay, I let Kurosaki-san here in."

"No, it's fine," Rukia assured her as she hung up her coat.

She looked at Hinamori closely, to see if there was any hint of censure in her eyes, but found nothing. It either meant that she didn't care, or that she simply didn't realize that Ichigo was underage. He did look particularly teenagery today, wearing a t-shirt with an unintelligible English phrase scrawled on it with long sleeves underneath, but Rukia had a feeling it was the latter option anyway.

"Look, Rukia, kitty!" her son exclaimed, thrusting up a picture of what looked like a gray and brown blob with whiskers.

"Wow," Rukia said, leaning down to pick him up and kiss him on the nose. "Great job, honey!"

She turned towards Hinamori. "He behave alright for you?" she asked.

"He was a little angel," Hinamori said enthusiastically, "Really, compared to other kids I've babysat for..."

"Well, the little angel has marker all over his hands," Rukia said wryly, balancing Kito against her hip as he squirmed to get free. "I'd better go clean him up before he gets it all over the walls."

"I'll get the markers then," Hinamori said, reaching down to grab the cup and her bandage sprung loose and she nearly tripped over the end, "Oh, oops."

She saw Ichigo reach down to help her out of the corner of her eye and she smiled, entering the bathroom to wash all the stains off Kito's hands.

Kito jumped off the counter and zipped out of the bathroom as soon as she was done, yelling, "All done, all done, all don-"

But he stopped suddenly and Rukia entered the main room to see Ichigo and Hinamori staring at each other, both their faces pale as sheets, Hinamori holding her sloppily re-bandaged arm. They didn't look away when she walked in.

"How did you say you hurt your arm again?" Ichigo said slowly, a look of stony seriousness on his face. Hinamori, on the other hand, looked terrified.

"I-I have to go now," she said, backing up while still clutching her arm, "Umm, s-so I'll see you at work, Kuchiki-san..."

And then, after reaching down to grab her shoes, she bolted.

"Wait!" Ichigo shouted and went after her in his socks.

"Ichigo!" Rukia yelled after him lunging at the door-frame and staring as he chased Hinamori down the hallway. "What the hell are you-"

She stopped herself in time and turned back to Kito, who was staring at her with wide, scared eyes.

"Kito," she said softly. "Listen to me, okay? I'll be right back, so don't move."

And then she was barreling after them. They where already out of sight, so she made for the stairwell'

only to almost run into Ichigo who was standing at the top.

"You wanna tell me what the hell is going on?" she demanded, breathless from her mad dash from her apartment.

"Shit," Ichigo said instead of answering her, looking down, "She got away."

"I figured that much," Rukia snapped and he looked up at her, the _regret_ on his face shocking her, "Ichigo what _happened_?"

"Her arm," he said distractedly, still looking down. "It wasn't burnt, it was bruised."

"And that means...?"

"There were _finger_ indentations in her arms," he snarled, "It looked like someone had taken it and smashed it against a wall a bunch of times, hard."

Rukia felt her chest contract, like she had just been punched in the gut, "What?" she said quietly. "Wait...What are you saying?"

He turned to look at her and straightened up, expression serious.

"Do you know if she still lives with her parents? Or if she has a boyfriend?" he demanded.

Rukia couldn't think. If it was true, if what Ichigo had seen was what he thought he was, then...then...

"She lives with her boyfriend, but...No. No way. Not Hinamori. There's just no way, I mean, she's always so ditzy and..."

But even as she said the words, Rukia remembered all the cuts and bruises she would come to work with, all the time she said she was just clumsy with a modest smile.

"I would know, wouldn't I?" Rukia murmured, still holding on to the last vestiges of denial, "Ichigo, wouldn't I _know_?"

Ichigo turned back towards her. "You'd be surprised how often this kind of thing happens," he said bitterly, "We've had a lot of people at the clinic...you'd never guess just by talking to them."

"Why didn't I see it?" Rukia said, still frozen in her tracks. "She was always coming to work with injuries, but I thought-she seemed so normal."

"They always do," Ichigo said harshly. "And they always go back."

Rukia frowned in confusion, "'Go back?'" she repeated, "What do you me-oh, no, you don't think-"

"This obviously isn't the first time this has happened, right?" he asked and she shook her head. "She's been living with him this whole time...You have to talk to her, okay. Next time you see her at work, you have to convince her to get some help."

Rukia nodded, still in shock. "Yeah, sure, definitely," she said, "I just..."

"Just what?" he asked, studying her carefully.

She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, feeling gullible and suddenly so much younger, "I don't really understand. Why she would go back, I mean."

Half of her expected Ichigo to start explaining about something about human psychology, but he exhaled softly and said, "Neither do I."

It was a few days before she saw Hinamori, because the other girl didn't work nearly as much as she did, but when she finally did, Hinamori, still wearing the bandage, avoided her. Well, she tried anyway, but the café wasn't very big and it only took a couple hours for Rukia to corner her alone in the backroom.

"I need to talk to you," Rukia said quietly.

Hinamori refused to look at her. "I'm busy right now," she muttered. "Later, okay?"

"No, not okay!" Rukia said loudly and grabbed her shoulder. "Listen, you need to go to the police or something. This is _not_ oka-"

"What the _hell_ do you know?" Hinamori said shrilly, finally looking at her head-on. "You've got it totally wrong! He's not like that! He's good! He's just really stressed out right now at work and-"

"So then it's okay if he _hits_ you?" Rukia demanded, tightening her grip on Hinamori's arm and shaking her. "What the hell gives him the _right_?"

"You're wrong!" Hinamori nearly shouted, tears starting to form in her eyes, "I'm sure he has his reasons, so just, so just don't-"

"Excuse me, what's going on in here?" a voice said, and they both turned to see Ise Nanao, one of the strictest people Rukia had ever met (and she had grown up with Byakuya) who was senior to both of them. She eyed them disapprovingly.

"I-" Rukia started to explain, but Hinamori cut her off.

"I'm going on my lunch break," she mumbled and whisked past Rukia and out the back door even though it was nearly three in the afternoon.

"Well?" Ise demanded, turning on Rukia. "What happened?"

"Um," Rukia said after a brief pause, regarding the door Hinamori exited from. "Never mind."

About a week later, Rukia got home at 5:30 and exhaled loudly, slumping against her closed door.

She was exhausted from a long day at work, but she couldn't fall asleep because she still had to go pick up Kito in a couple of hours. She should probably do something productive, but she didn't have the willpower. Kicking off her heels, she sat down at the kitchen table and took out her phone, finding Ichigo's number on the speed-dial.

Things had been weird between them lately, probably because of the ongoing-feud Ichigo was having with one of his sisters who was refusing to speak with him and both of them were shaken up over Hinamori's situation (who was refusing to speak with her.) She wanted him to come over, but it was a school-night and she knew she shouldn't-

But before she could make her decision, her phone started ringing in her hand, Ichigo's name flashing in bright red kana on the caller-ID.

"Hey," she said, answering her cell with an intimate smile, "I was just thinking about calling you."

Ten minutes later they were in a tad more intimate position.

"Fuck," Ichigo groaned, his arms looped tightly around her waist, leaned over to mesh their mouths together. "Fuck, you are so _short_."

"Shut...up," she said in-between kisses, tugging off his jacket clumsily, "God... come...here if it bothers you so much."

She took his arm and, still kissing him, lead him slowly backwards towards her bedroom door.

Neither of them were looking where they were going, and so with some difficulty they managed to actually get into the room. Rukia bumped her head in the process and he let out a snort of laughter, so she shoved him into a seated position onto the bed.

"Now," she said, breathless, but determined, and stalked towards him, pushing his knees apart and wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her mouth against his roughly.

Ichigo pulled her flush against his chest, groaning. Now she had to lean over (though only a bit) and he wrapped his arms further around her, shifting to kiss her neck.

She started to feel quite lightheaded, her pencil skirt beginning to feel restrictive, and then she didn't know who pushed or who pulled but then they were falling over onto her plain comforter.

She straddled his hips and they kissed in a particularly unchaste manner, lips, tongues, teeth, and _fuck,_ Ichigo had gotten good at kissing.

They shifted suddenly and Rukia's head hit her pillow and she jerked Ichigo's collar down, his swollen lips back to hers.

It'd been _years_ since she'd had sex and now, with Ichigo on top of her, hips pressed against hers, hands on her bra, she wanted, she wanted, she _wanted_-

Suddenly, Ichigo stiffened and pulled away, looking wary.

"What?" she asked breathlessly. "Why'd you..."

"Umm," Ichigo said, looking horribly embarrassed.

She moved upward to kiss him again, unable to help herself, but he stopped her before she could reach him.

"Rukia!" he hissed and moved backward, looking at her like she should know better, which only served to confuse her more.

She frowned, sitting up, wondering if she was going too fast. "What's the problem?" she asked, turning her head to the side to look at him more carefully, "Am I-"

But then suddenly, she realized what Ichigo's 'problem' was. Or, well, felt it.

"Ohhh," she said in understanding and he glared at her, cheeks brilliantly red.

"You know," Rukia said carefully, throat dry, glancing down. "I could take care of that for you."

Ichigo's mouth dropped open a little, but before he could respond there was a loud pounding on the door.

"Kuchiki-san!" Hinamori's voice came from behind the door, her voice taking a desperate edge. "It's me! Can you please...Can you please open the door?"

Rukia and Ichigo looked at each other for a second before Rukia swore and clambered off the bed, pulling her shirt down and readjusting her skirt as she went.

She threw open the door to find Hinamori, tears shining in her eyes, a huge bruise on the left side of her jaw highlighting her face.

"Kuchiki-san," Hinamori said, shaking, but not breaking down. "I need to talk to you."

(1) It's pretty unusual for high school students in Japan to have a part-time job, unless they're having financial problems. In fact, some schools even prohibit it.

(2) Sensei is used for both teachers and doctors.

**A/N: Sooo, yeah. Hinamori. I tried not to make it that obvious, but I don't know if if worked, especially for the people reading this on LJ who saw the warnings. It was an idea I had before I started VRaSB, but it was pretty hard to decide whether to write it in or not, because domestic abuse is a pretty serious issue (especially in Japan.) Tell me how I did!**

** Also, sorry for the fail!lime. I tried, but it honestly didn't come out as well as I hoped it would. I was meant to write angst, not romance, that's all I can say.**

** So, sorry for the wait, it really did take a long time to figure out what I was going to do for this chapter and I had to do a lot of research. (Needless to say, I have decided I am never getting pregnant after reading all those articles on after effects of pregnancy.)**

** Please review!**


	11. Blowback

Chapter Eleven-

"I'm so..._stupid_," Hinamori was sobbing into the handkerchief that Ichigo had procured from God knew where. "I kept thinking that it would get better, but it's _not,_ and I don't know what to do!"

Rukia exchanged looks with Ichigo, but from the look on his face it was obvious that he had no idea what to say either.

"Hey, it's okay," Rukia began awkwardly, placing her hand on the back of Hinamori's shoulder. "We're going to take care of it, alright?"

Hinamori seemed to curl further into Rukia's rickety chair, shoulders shaking so hard Rukia was almost worried it might break.

"I just thought- _god_, I'm such an idiot- I just thought if I waited it out it would just go away and he'd stop, but this morning he...I..." She choked on her next words and Rukia couldn't understand what she was saying. "I..._love_ him, I love him so much, but I don't think I can go back there!"

"You can stay here," Rukia said quickly, gripping her shoulder tighter. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure I have extra blankets or something..."

Hinamori just sobbed harder and Rukia threw a desperate look in Ichigo's direction.

"Hinamori?" Ichigo said hesitantly, kneeling down beside her. "Can I have a look at your face?"

For whatever reason, this seemed to throw Hinamori out of her sobbing fit and with a couple deep breaths she managed to stop crying, her shoulders shaking with the effort, and nodded. Ichigo carefully turned her face so he could inspect the bruise on her jaw.

"Do you have an ice pack?" he asked Rukia, and she was so glad of something to do that it was only when she opened the freezer that she realized that she didn't own any ice packs.

"Er, I have mixed vegetables?" she said, holding out the frozen package. Ichigo didn't roll his eyes at her choice in produce, but merely caught it when Rukia tossed it to him and wrapped it in her dish towel, pressing it against Hinamori's cheek.

"Any other injuries?" he asked calmly, while Rukia hovered uncertainly in the kitchen and Hinamori shook her head silently, seemingly unable to speak.

Ichigo seemed skeptical, but after looking her up and down and not finding any evidence of any others, he stands.

"Hold this?" he said and Hinamori took a hold of the frozen vegetables with a shaking hand, head bowed over her lap.

"Can I get you anything?" Rukia said helplessly, shifting from one foot to the other. "Tea? Something to eat?"

"Tea would be nice," Hinamori said hoarsely and Rukia hurried over to the kettle, wincing as she remembered that she only had cheap tea bags from the convenience store. While the tea was brewing, Rukia glanced at the clock, realizing that she had to leave to pick up Kito soon.

"I can go," Ichigo said, seeming to read her thoughts. "They know me by now anyway."

"Thanks," Rukia said gratefully, even as she worried about her inability to help Hinamori by herself.

As it turned out, Hinamori didn't seem to be in the talking mood and merely sipped her tea, eyes permanently glued to the floor.

"Hinamori-san," Rukia started tentatively after fifteen minutes of silence. "I...is there someone I should call?"

Hinamori shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Rukia pressed, coming to sit down across from her in the other chair. "Your parents? Or a friend?"

She did not mention the police, even though she knew it should be first on the list. The truth was that she _had_ been in this situation before. Hell, she'd even had a couple boyfriends who thought they could push her around, not that she'd ever tell Ichigo that. But the difference was Rukia had always had the self-respect to get out of a relationship like that, not suffer in silence for who knew how many months Hinamori had been doing this. How long had she said they'd been dating again? Over a year?

She still didn't really understand how someone could just _let_ her boyfriend use her like a punching bag. She had no idea what to say to Hinamori. What would she do if Hinamori changed her mind and decided she wanted to go back?

"I'm not on speaking terms with my parents," Hinamori said softly, rubbing her red eyes furiously. "And most of my friends are back in Kyoto. I'll be okay, I just need to..."

She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence and Rukia sighed.

"You can stay here as long as you need," she said softly and Hinamori bit her lip, fresh tears coming to her eyes.

"I don't...I can't...I don't have any of my things," she said, an element of a sob more than obvious in her voice. "They're all back the apartment..."

"Hey, hey, it'll be okay," Rukia said, reaching across the table to grab one of her hands and clasp it tightly. "We'll take care of it, okay?"

Hinamori nodded shortly, her lower lip still trembling as if a single touch would cause her to shatter completely and Rukia made her another cup of tea.

At least she had better things to worry about than the deer-in-the-headlights look Ichigo had given her when she'd kinda-sorta-maybe offered him a handjob.

* * *

It was almost ten o'clock by the time Ichigo returned home, feeling worn out and completely uninterested in his homework. He almost groaned when walked in the kitchen to see Karin waiting for him, an ominous look on her face that really did not belong on an eleven year old.

"You missed dinner again," she said shortly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I _told_ Yuzu that I wouldn't be here," Ichigo retorted, not at all in the mood for his younger sister's attitude at the moment.

He grabbed a drink out of the refrigerator and turned to go upstairs.

"Where are you going?" Karin said angrily, getting out of her chair.

Ichigo turned back and raised an eyebrow at her. "My room? I have homework."

"I'm not done talking yet!"

"Well, _I_ am," Ichigo retorted furiously, raising his voice to a volume that is probably unnecessary. "And I will be until you can stop acting like a brat! What are you going to do when I move out? Throw another tantrum?"

Karin's eyes widened in horror. "You're _moving out_?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I will eventually. It's normal, you know. Did you think I was going to stay here forever?"

"No," Karin retorted scornfully, but she looked hurt nonetheless.

Ichigo resisted the urge to yell at her more, but turned away instead and went up to his room without another word.

Karin would just have to get over herself, Ichigo thought furiously, getting out his math book from his bag. If she couldn't figure out that there were more important things than public perception then that was her problem. Ichigo knew what he wanted, and yeah, sure, it was not exactly the most ordinary thing in the world, but at least it was something good and real. Not like a sick parody of a relationship that Hinamori had with that motherfucker that had left indentations of his knuckles on the side of her face.

Now if only he could focus on his math homework instead of remembering Hinamori's heart-wrenching sobs or thinking about what exactly Rukia had meant by "I could take care of that for you." He wasn't sure which was worse.

The next day he brought Hinamori some pamphlets about domestic violence that his dad kept around, but she didn't seem to be interested. She didn't seem to be interested in much, actually, but as neither Ichigo nor Rukia really knew her that well, he didn't think there was much they could do.

She'd called an old childhood friend of hers and he'd apparently sent her a plane ticket in the mail, but there was little she could do until it arrived. She'd only arrived with the clothes on her back, and spent a lot of time staring out into space. Hinamori tried to make herself helpful over the next couple days, playing with Kito and helping with dinner or the dishes, but all with a painfully fake smile on her face to the point where Ichigo wished she wouldn't.

The plane ticket came just four days after Hinamori showed up at Rukia's door. Rukia had thrown the mail on the kitchen table without looking at it before running off to work while Ichigo had stayed behind, ostensibly to watch Kito, but really so that Hinamori wouldn't be alone.

He came out of the bathroom around one o'clock to find Hinamori putting on her shoes by the door.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo said quickly, striding forward across the apartment floor to stop her.

"I have to go back," Hinamori said guiltily, bruise still quite visible on her jaw.

"What?" Ichigo said, horrified. "_No, _are you cra-"

"I don't have any of my things," she said, gripping the envelope with her plane ticket inside tightly in one hand. "I didn't even grab my purse. I don't have my wallet, my credit card, my cell phone, or any money at all. I'm not even sure I can get on the plane without an ID. Everything I own is back at our apartment! And I need," She took a deep breath, shuddering and looking generally pathetic in Rukia's too-small clothes. "I need to finish it. It needs to be over. I have to tell him that I'm not going to let him push me around anymore and that he doesn't own me!"

It would have sounded impressive if Ichigo didn't know it was a spectacularly _bad_ idea. Didn't she read _any_ of his pamphlets?

"Absolutely not," Ichigo said firmly. "Listen, you don't understand. You can't go back there, what if he-"

"You can't stop me!" Hinamori said, a spark of something rebellious in her previously defeated eyes. "I'm not going to let him take everything from me!"

Her voice took on a desperate quality that caused Kito to look up from the floor where he was playing with his block set, and Ichigo gritted his teeth. She was right, of course. It wasn't right that that bastard got to chase her out of town without any of her belongings. The answer came to him in an instant and he didn't even think before it flew out of his mouth.

"Listen, I'll go," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders bracingly. "Make a list of the things you want me to grab and I'll-No," he said when she opened her mouth to protest. "Seriously. You can't go back there. It isn't safe. I know you want to confront him, but just...I dunno, write a letter or something. Don't put yourself in the same room as him again, no way."

"I-" Hinamori started, looking worried and guilty. "Kurosaki-kun, I can't ask you to-"

"You're not asking, I'm offering," Ichigo replied determinedly. "It'll be fine. I'll go right now while you watch Kito and get everything you need."

"Shouldn't we wait until Kuchiki-san-"

"No time," Ichigo cut her off, knowing that Rukia would hardly approve of this plan. "Your flight leaves tomorrow morning, right?"

Hinamori looked somewhat hesitant, but mostly so relieved that Ichigo feared she might start sobbing again. She didn't however and bent at the waist in a deep bow.

"I'm in your debt!" she said, so formally that Ichigo was not sure what to say in response.

"No problem," he ended up deciding on. "Don't worry. I got this."

It was more confidence than he really felt and Ichigo debated the wisdom of his decision of entering the home of a known domestic abuser armed only with a large cardboard box and Hinamori's list of possessions.

As he walked up the stairs of Hinamori's (former) lavish apartment building he even debated calling Chad for backup, but then that would probably take too long and Ichigo wanted to get this over with.

He knocked on the door and for once in his short sixteen years was glad of the hair and the scowl that make him look like a delinquent.

"Can I help you?" a man with glasses and a friendly smile answered the door and for a second Ichigo faltered, wondering if he'd somehow gotten the wrong apartment.

But as Ichigo knew well, looks could be deceiving and he straightened his shoulders, refusing to show weakness.

"You Aizen Sousuke?" he asked gruffly and the man looked politely puzzled, but when his eyes fell down to the box in Ichigo's arms something seemed to darken and Ichigo knew he'd gotten the right man.

"I'm here to get Hinamori's things," he said without waiting for the fucker to answer and as Aizen's mouth turned into a frown Ichigo thought, _"Yeah, that's right, motherfucker. I know what you are. And if you gotta problem? Bring it on."_

In the end, fortunately, Ichigo did not have to resort to any of his hard-won martial arts skills and left the apartment with only a slightly anti-climactic feeling. He'd managed to grab most of what Hinamori wanted, including a few extra things like her toiletries and a photograph of her and a short boy with gray hair at what looked like their high school graduation. Aizen had lingered around saying fucked up things about how Hinamori was a delusional liar that had really made Ichigo want to punch the man, but he'd managed to make it out without coming to blows.

But the important thing was he had Hinamori's ID and her most essential personal possessions. Now she could move on and get away from that sick bastard. The smile on her face was well worth the trip, and Ichigo was glad he could do even the smallest thing to help her.

Rukia didn't exactly agree.

"Are you _insane_?" she said after dragging him out into the hallway when she returned from work later that night.

"What was I supposed to do?" Ichigo replied, shocked at her reaction. "She couldn't get on the _plane_. All her stuff was over there!"

"You don't just _walk into _a situation like that by yourself!" she hissed, and despite her small stature Ichigo found himself vaguely afraid of her. "He could have...God, Ichigo, do you have idea how nasty these kind of things can get? What would you have done if he tried to attack you?"

"Broke the bastard's nose," Ichigo replied, completely serious, but Rukia did not seem to understand.

"This isn't a joke!" she said, looking worried and scared for reasons Ichigo didn't understand. "He could have tried to beat you up too! What if you had gotten hurt?"

"I think you underestimate how many fights I've been in because of this hair," Ichigo scoffed. "I think I could take on one pathetic excuse for a salaryman."

"That's not the point!" Rukia shouted, and Ichigo stopped and stared at the almost frantic look on her face, a foreboding feeling starting to come over him. "You...this...this is all my fault, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo frowned.

"I brought Hinamori here," Rukia said slowly, looking horrified. "And you...I should have never..."

"What are you going on about?" Ichigo asked, and Rukia stared at him for a few second, something like dawning realization flooding onto her face.

"I can't...this is ridiculous," she said after a long pause. "I don't...I don't think I can do this anymore."

"Yes, this is rid...wait, what?"

"I mean this isn't going to work!" Rukia said, gritting her teeth. "I don't...I should have realized that you...I..."

"Rukia," Ichigo interrupted, annoyed. "I can take care of myself! Even if that fucker tried anything- which he _didn't_- I had it under control."

"No, you _didn't_!" Rukia shot back, clenching her fists at her sides. "You could have walked into _anything_ there. And if you'd gotten hurt it would all be my fault. You...You're so young, you don't have any clue-"

"_I_ don't have any clue?" Ichigo retorted, a little hurt and getting more and more angry by the second. "_You're_ the one that can barely look at her!"

"I'm not talking about Hinamori right now!" Rukia said, looking pained for no reason Ichigo could see. "I'm talking about _us_!"

Ichigo blinked, confused.

"Us?" he repeated slowly. "What about us?"

Before Rukia could answer, a middle-aged woman wearing an apron came out of the door of the apartment across from Rukia's, carrying a large bag of trash. She looked at the two of them oddly as she passed, and Rukia waited until she entered the stairwell before continuing.

"I-" Rukia started, her eyes dropping to the floor. "I don't think we should...I think I have to end this."

Ichigo finally understood where this was going and felt a sudden chill creep up his spine.

"I think we should break up," Rukia said, raising her eyes to meet his again, back going as straight as a rod. "No...more than that. I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Ichigo stared at her, but found no sign of insincerity in her face, only determination.

"Oi," he said, raising his hands up in front of his chest placatingly. "What? Don't be-"

"This isn't a spur of the moment decision," Rukia interrupted with a grim look on her face, fingers clenched in the fabric of her navy dress over her thighs. "This...This was a bad idea to begin with, I know that now. Y-You're too young and I shouldn't be taking advant-"

"Taking _adva_- don't say that!" Ichigo said, starting to get angry. More than anything, he hated being patronized, and the condescending tone Rukia was using to describe his age was pissing him off. "You...you really think that?"

"I can't," Rukia said, squaring her shoulders shakily. "At the beginning, I thought I could...but I was wrong, okay? I should never have started this, and I'm sorry that I led you on, but this just isn't going to work."

She was really doing this, Ichigo realized, starting to feel sick to his stomach. After six months of friendship, a month and a half spent dating, all those hours of awful drawings and stupid jokes, _this_ was how it was going to end?

He wanted to protest, to argue, but what would he say? She had that look on her face that clearly stated that she was going to do this whether he liked it or not and there was no way he could convince her out of it. This was really happening. And there was nothing he could do about it.

"Do I at least get a reason?" Ichigo finally decided on, crossing his arms over his chest, feeling rather like someone had ripped several of his internal organs out.

"I'm sorry," Rukia said hoarsely, again, and Ichigo wished she would stop saying that, stop pretending she regretted this when clearly the last six months meant nothing to her. "It's my fault. I should never have...You're still a kid and I-"

"Enough!" Ichigo said furiously. "Fine. I get it."

Don't say it again, he meant. Once was already enough.

"I'm so, so sorry," Rukia said, and then she actually _bowed_, like they were total strangers. "I really had fun these past few mo-"

"Rukia," Ichigo cut her off, mostly just wanting to get it over with now. "Don't. Don't do that."

She looked up at him miserably and for a second Ichigo thought her eyes seemed brighter than usual, though it was hard to tell in the dim florescent lighting of the hallway. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing seemed to come to her. She finally turned around, the line of her back somehow more definitive than all her empty words, and walked back to her apartment door. Ichigo found himself suddenly desperate, compelled to call out to her and make her see. But the moment passed and the door shut behind her with a clack, leaving Ichigo gritting his teeth in a sudden wave of anger.

There was no point. Nothing he could say would change the fact that she saw him as nothing more than a _child_; she'd said as much. And Ichigo had enough self-worth to know that that couldn't continue.

It was just...he'd thought...Before this whole Hinamori fiasco, Ichigo'd thought they'd been great. It was completely unconventional and they'd technically still hadn't been on what most people considered a real date, but he really, really liked Rukia and he thought she'd...but maybe that was just him. Maybe Ichigo was too stupid and wrapped up in himself to see the truth.

_"Whatever,"_ he thought, derisively, making for the stairs.

It was only when he passed the reception area and went out into the cold January air that he realized that it would probably be the last time he would be in this apartment complex.

Karin glared at him as he walked in halfway through dinner, but Ichigo didn't have the will to say something to her. After all, she'd unknowingly just gotten what she'd wanted, and Ichigo wasn't going to give her the opportunity to gloat. So he ate dinner quietly, did his homework, and went to bed. There was nothing else.

He didn't talk to Rukia for more than a month. He saw her sometimes, walking with Kito across the street, but he made absolutely no attempt to contact her. If he still had her number in his cell phone...well, that was laziness more than anything.

Mizuiro and Keigo noticed his bad mood, but only Chad seemed to guess its cause. But, being Chad, he didn't try perform stupid antics or offer him creepy advice to cheer him up like _some other people_, and merely told him he had his back. Around week two, Tatsuki started bugging him about scaring the entire class with his expression, but that was probably just Tatsuki being a bitch as usual. Inoue coming up to him after gym one day and asking if he was alright did make him feel bad for a bit, as he was pretty sure she still liked him, but the next day was Valentine's Day (1) and Ichigo was too busy not listening to Keigo's complaints about his scant collection of obligation chocolate as opposed to Mizuiro's regular haul from his millions of girlfriends and hating the holiday in general to think on it too much. Even when the perpetually taciturn Ishida Uryuu actually opened his mouth to tell Ichigo to stop ruining the atmosphere with his unending moodiness, Ichigo absolutely refused to admit that there was anything wrong.

And if there was...well, he'd just have to get over it. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. Rukia'd made her choice. It wasn't like a fight, where as long as you kept standing, as long as you kept moving, you could still win. She might have been his first and only girlfriend, but even Ichigo knew relationships didn't work like that. He couldn't go back; he could only move forward and try not to wonder if one day she'd move on without telling him and he'd never see her again.

It was just...he hadn't realized how much time he'd spent with Rukia. Or logically he'd known, but the true implications of it didn't hit him until after they broke up and suddenly he had all this free time and nothing to do with it. She'd been such a big part of his life and now...Well, now he had no excuse to skive off from Keigo's ridiculous plans. Life was suddenly a lot more boring than it was before and at least one person noticed how much time he was spending at home and she didn't have the reaction Ichigo thought she would.

"You didn't dump her, did you?" Karin said a week after the Valentine's Day fiasco, coming into his room after dinner, leaning against the door frame.

Ichigo scowled at her and put his pencil down on his physics homework. "What's it to you?" he said, turning in his seat to see the frown on her face.

"_She_ dumped you," Karin said, her lip curling disdainfully. "That's what happened, isn't it?"

"None of your business," Ichigo retorted rudely, unbuttoning a few buttons of his uniform shirt just for something to do with his hands. "Don't you have something else to be doing now?"

"No," Karin responded coolly, crossing her arms over her chest. "You gonna get her back?"

Ichigo stared at her with a healthy amount of confusion.

"What?" he said slowly. "Why do you care?"

Karin scowled, a family trait apparently. "I don't," she snapped. "But you've been really mean to Yuzu lately and it's pissing me off. So I figure that it was better before, because at least when you were here you were actually happy."

Of all the things that Ichigo expected to come out of his younger sister's mouth, this was not one of them and he frowned, unsure if he was understanding her properly.

"So you're saying..." he said carefully and Karin glared at him.

"Don't make me say it again," she said bad-temperedly. "Just stop being so miserable all the time, okay. At least for Yuzu's sake."

"It doesn't work like that," Ichigo said stiffly, part of him a little surprised that he was talking about this at all, to _Karin_ of all people. "I can't just...It's not like those stupid dramas that Yuzu and oyaji watch. I'm not going to...I dunno, _follow_ her around like a complete loser like they do in movies."

"You don't have a romantic bone in your body, do you, Ichi-nii," Karin observed in amusement.

"Stalking," Ichigo said, quite confidently, "is not romantic."

Karin rolled her eyes. "No, probably not," she said softly and Ichigo looked at her strangely, wondering if he was this mature when he was eleven. Unlikely.

"Just do _something_, okay?" Karin said after a short pause. "Because you're driving us all up the wall and if you don't I might have to go over there and punch the stupid bitch in the face."

"Oi," Ichigo protested, instead of agreeing with her like a normal person who just got dumped out of the blue.

"Yeah, yeah," Karin said, waving a hand flippantly at him as she left the room. "Whatever."

But whatever his little sister said, Ichigo knew things weren't that simple. _He_ wasn't the one who had to do anything to fix this. That was all on Rukia.

Then, just a couple days before the start of March, Yokochin's stupid gang tried to jump Ichigo and Chad for revenge on what happened under the bridge when they were all still in middle school. It was a dirty fight, five on two, with Yokochin's people carrying baseball bats and switchblades and while Ichigo and Chad eventually walked out of the alley victorious, they paid a heavy price. Ichigo's face looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to it (which they had) and he had a bunch of shallow cuts on his forearms. Ichigo was worried that Chad had broken a rib _and_ a concussion, but in the end neither of them ended up going to a hospital and instead patched themselves up in the backroom of Ichigo's father's clinic. Ichigo spent the night with an icepack over his black eye and tried not to think what people at school would say the next day. Except for a few fights when he started high school, Ichigo thought they were over this juvenile "oh, you look different, let's beat the shit out of you" phase, but apparently it wasn't to be.

Predictably, Yuzu freaked out the next morning when he came down for breakfast and even his stupid father looked vaguely concerned. Teachers and his fellow classmates at school gave him and Chad frightened looks and when the final bell rang Ichigo almost forgot to change back into his shoes before he raced out of the building.

He thought the worst of it was over, but then Yuzu drafted him to pick up some groceries for dinner around five and Ichigo completely forgot that Rukia usually got home at 5:30 and nearly walked right into her going around the corner on the way back.

"Oh, crap," he said eloquently as Rukia's eyes widened with horror.

He was almost a little insulted until-

"What happened to your _face_?" Rukia gasped and then Ichigo remembered the bruises. "Did Hinamori's..."

"What?" Ichigo scowled, rubbing back the bandage on his cheek self-consciously. "No. _No. _It was these stupid punks I knew in middle school. Thought they'd have a go at Chad and I yesterday."

"What?" Rukia said, shocked and for the first time Ichigo noticed that she'd cut her hair. It looked good on her, even though Ichigo had never thought of himself as a guy who liked girls with short hair. "Did you call the police?"

Ichigo stared at her. "Wha-no. What would the police do? We kicked their asses. And left." And then just because he couldn't leave it alone. "I _told_ you I could take care of myself."

Rukia looked away for the first time, pale cheeks coloring. "We're not talking about this," she mumbled.

"Of course, we aren't," Ichigo replied bitterly, tightening his hold on his grocery bag. "You don't want to see me because of some crazy, pointless rea-"

"It wasn't pointless," Rukia retorted furiously, punching him on the shoulder, though a lot lighter than she'd done before. "You weren't supposed to get _hurt_, you idiot!"

"How do you figu-" Ichigo started angrily, but stopped at the look on Rukia's face. She looked like she was about to cry and it diffused his ire immediately.

"Oh...don't," he said helplessly as she ducked down to hide her face. "God, Rukia, don't, please."

"Idiot!" she said again, shoulders shaking and Ichigo didn't know what to do. He put his shopping bag down on the sidewalk and ducked down a little to try and see her face.

"Oi...c'mon now, Rukia, don't cr-"

"I'm not crying!" she denied, jerking back to look at him again, but her eyes were sort of wet anyway. "You...You...God, I'm such an idiot. I thought...I...do you remember what I said to you, right before Hinamori knocked on ou-the door?"

Well, that wasn't what Ichigo expected to hear her say. What she'd said right before Hinamori had...Oh. _That._

Ichigo blushed. "Er, yeah..." Was he supposed to have forgotten? It was _very_ memorable, the kind of thing Ichigo thought he'd probably remember _forever_.

"I shouldn't have said that," she continued, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw tightly. A car went by and Ichigo couldn't believe that they were having this conversation right on the street, but it wasn't like they could move somewhere else. "I don't know what I was thinking. I just forgot that you...that I...And, _fuck_, the look on your face...And I thought this is just so weird and I shouldn't hav-"

"Hey," Ichigo said firmly, reaching out to grab her shoulders. "Look, yeah, I get it. It's really weird. But we were dealing with it, right?"

"Ichigo," she said lowly, still not looking at him. "I don't want to be the reas-"

"You're not...God, Rukia, you're not _taking advantage_ of me." Were they really having this conversation here? _Here_? "I mean...I'm not a kid, Rukia. You don't have to protect me."

She looked up at him with wide eyes for a few seconds and then her shoulder relaxed and she closed her eyes. Then, to Ichigo's surprise, she glared.

"Fine," she said, jabbing him in the chest with her pointer finger. "But then _you_ can't protect me either, okay! Next time you _tell_ me before you walk into some crazy abuser's apartment, you hear!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, I'll-" He paused and looked down at her. "Next time?"

Rukia faltered. "I mean," she said, looking suddenly serious. "If you-"

Ichigo kissed her just to avoid hearing her next words, not because of any romantic notions on his part, _yes_, right in the middle of the street, because clearly he'd gone as crazy as Rukia.

"Ichigo," Rukia murmured when they broke apart and fisted her hand in his hair before kissing him again. "Would you go out with me?"

"Idiot, isn't that...Mmm...my line?" Ichigo said, skimming his hands down her waist.

"Answer the question," Rukia said seriously, pulling back to rest her forehead against his and Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he grumbled and Rukia beamed and then dragged him back up to her apartment to make up for lost time.

"I'm an idiot," Rukia mumbled into Ichigo's shoulder a little less than an hour later. They were lying on her bed with Rukia's dress all wrinkled and Ichigo's shirt half undone, and he didn't think he'd ever felt so alive.

"Yeah, well, no one's perfect," Ichigo replied, running his hand though her new haircut.

"Jerk," she said, elbowing him in the side. "I'm trying to say I'm sorry, you know."

"I know," he said.

He couldn't seem to stop touching her, her hair, her back, her waist. He thought he might never get to again and part of him was still afraid that this would all turn out to be a fluke, or a joke, or a dream.

"_You_ like my haircut," Rukia said, turning her face to grin up at him. "Aren't men supposed to like long hair?"

Ichigo blushed (he'd been doing that a lot today) and refused to give in.

"It's okay," he mumbled, extremely unconvincingly, sliding his hand down to her waist again.

Rukia smirked and rolled over on top of him again, slipping her fingers into her hair again and kissing his bruised face gently.

Ichigo groaned and leaned up into her touch. He grabbed for the closest part of her to him, which ended up being her ass, but Rukia didn't seem to mind. She kissed down his jaw and Ichigo tried not to moan when she slid her hand down his shirt again and found his right nipple. It wasn't fair, he hadn't even known that that was a _thing, _for guys anyway.

"_Fuck_," he said as she moved down to his neck. "Fuck, Rukia, if you leave a mark, I will _kill_ you."

"Fine, fine," she said, practically _fondling_ his nipple with her fingers and Ichigo tightened his hold on her ass in retaliation, rolling them over to pin her to the bed beneath him. She let out an intriguing squeak against his neck and, mindful of the bruises on his chest, slid her hands back up to cup his face and kiss him deeply.

It was pretty much the best apology ever, and if Ichigo had to have the shit kicked out of him by crazy delinquents to get it, then so be it.

It was only when Rukia left to go pick up Kito that Ichigo remembered Yuzu and how he'd left her groceries in the street below.

Over the next few weeks, Kito kept jumping out at him randomly, jabbering in nearly complete sentences all the while, Karin gave him resigned looks when he came home late for dinner, Keigo complained that he was ditching them for his mysterious girlfriend again, and Rukia filled him on Hinamori's situation. She had apparently taken that flight back to Kyoto to stay with her friend and was now pressing charges against her ex-boyfriend, explaining why Rukia had first thought the psycho had gone after him. Rukia talked to her sometimes and she seemed to be doing better.

They got into their old routine again, with Ichigo spending most of his free time with her, and they actually managed to go on a couple dates this time (though these usually ended in Rukia doing embarrassing things like trying to emulate the local dialect.) In April, Ichigo entered his second year of high school and a couple days before summer break he turned seventeen. Rukia got some sort of semi-managerial position at her cafe job that came with a raise and Kito learned to write his name in hiragana.

Two weeks before Ichigo started up school again on September 1st, Ichigo took her out to dinner (and refused to let her split the check with him) with some money he'd been saving up and afterward they ended up kissing outside her apartment door so long that Ichigo's neck started to get a crick.

"You know," Rukia said, pulling away and nuzzling his neck with her nose. "Kito's sleeping over at that boy's from his daycare tonight. So...if...if you wanted to come in..."

Ichigo blinked at her, taking in the cautious expression on her face.

"Only if you wanted to," Rukia said quickly. "I'd understand if you didn't..."

Ichigo thought about it, really thought about it, and the panic that he'd first felt when Rukia propositioned him seven months ago wasn't there.

"I've never," he started, even though it was quite obvious at this stage that Rukia already knew. "I don't...I haven't..."

"I know," she said, her hands tightening on the fabric of the back of his shirt. "It's okay. I can show you."

"Right," Ichigo said and kissed her as she pulled him inside her door.

Everything was a bit of a haze after that- Rukia unbuttoning his shirt, Ichigo pulling off her dress, kissing down her stomach, unhooking her bra (which really was a lot easier than they made it seem on TV), Rukia going for his belt and then they were horizontal and Ichigo promptly forgot about everything else in the world. He focused on the soft, low sounds Rukia made in the back of her throat, the way she dug her short nails into his back and arched up to press her breasts against her chest, the way she groaned when he found the right place to put his fingers and lost himself in the burn in his gut and the feel of Rukia beneath him.

(1) Despite coming from the West, Valentine's Day in Japan is a little different. Women give men in their lives chocolate and it's not necessarily romantic. Obligation chocolate (as you can probably guess) is given to male co-workers or classmates and is generally not very expensive. Boyfriends or love-interests receive more expensive chocolate referred to as "true feeling" chocolate. Men return the favor to women the next month on "White Day." Both holidays were mostly created by confectionery companies, for obvious reasons.

** A/N: I'M ALIVE! I'm sure you're all very surprised. Since I haven't updated since October. Of 2010. But I'm back now, I promise, and there's only one more chapter to go and then an epilogue! I will try not to write 200k of other stories in between now and the next time I update, as this was the main cause for my insanely long hiatus. It will be hard, but I think I can do it. Hopefully this extra long chapter will make up for your pains.**

** Anyway, this chapter ended up being a lot different than the original idea I had in my head for it. For one, Ichigo and Rukia were never going to break-up. But then I got bored. It happens.**

** In other news, I've posted a new Bleach fic, which actually takes place in the canon universe (though still AU) which is also Ichigo/Rukia. Check it out!**

** Many thanks to my ever-patient beta Resonance and d and please leave a review! **


	12. Bang

Chapter Twelve-

Rukia was painting her toenails a truly obnoxious shade of purple. Which would be fine, because it wasn't like Ichigo really cared what color her toenails were, but the fact that she was doing it in bed was a little weird.

"How many coats of that are you putting on?" he asked with a yawn, scooting up a bit to lean against the headboard to get a better view of her breasts.

"Enough to get it right," Rukia replied from the other side of the bed, wiggling her toes at him without looking up. Her face was a mask of concentration as she dipped the brush back into the bottle and then carefully applied another layer of purple to her second largest toe. She elbowed his bare leg casually. "Don't make me mess up."

Ichigo reflected that if someone had told him a year ago he would be here, naked in Kuchiki Rukia's bed while she painted her nails in some weird manifestation of post-coital energy, he probably would've choked on his own tongue and died of asphyxiation.

"You know, I thought the to-do lists were weird, but I think you've outdone yourself this time," Ichigo said in amusement, letting his foot fall against her naked hip. "What's next, flossing?"

"That doesn't even make sense," Rukia complained, looking up at him with a roll of her eyes. She appeared to have finally finished with her nails and screwed the cap of the purple nail polish shut before placing it on the floor next to the bed. "Why would anyone floss in bed? And besides, to-do lists are perfectly useful when I always have a million things to do."

She gestured to the closet, next to which Rukia's current to-do list on cutesy stationary was pinned to the wall. Ichigo was number two, after "Ask landlord to look at kitchen sink disposal." Ichigo was not entirely sure what to think about this.

"Most people don't write them right after...um..."

Rukia caught his eye and grinned evilly. "Right after _what_ again?" she asked innocently, which really would have worked better if she wasn't stark naked. She inched closer to him up the bed, careful not to let her nails touch the sheets.

Ichigo cursed himself for blushing and tried not to blatantly stare at anything that wasn't her face.

"Shut up," he told her, with as much dignity as possible and Rukia laughed, not unpleasantly and kissed him.

Ichigo let her control the kiss for a moment before pulling her flush against him, the soft brush of her hair against his cheeks, the press of her breasts against his chest. He slid a hand down her waist to clutch her hip and Rukia made a low pleased sound, digging her nails in his shoulders for a brief second before releasing him.

"Wait," she groaned, canting her head away. "My nails..."

Ichigo kissed her jaw and then ducked down to kiss her neck, lifting her a little so she was practically sitting in his lap.

"You'll just have to keep your feet in the air then," he murmured in her ear, vaguely surprised at his own daring.

Rukia snickered, not exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

"Hah, _really_, Ichigo? I bet I should also keep them as far apart as possible in order to prevent smud...oh...that's very, um...forward of you isn't it, Kurosaki-sa-_shit, Ichigo!_"

All in all though, sex was...weird. Don't get him wrong, it was pretty fucking awesome, Ichigo totally got why the entire world was kind of obsessed, but no one talked about the fact that in addition to being awesome, it also had the tendency to be awkward and uncomfortable.

Not that he was an expert or anything, as he and Rukia have only done it six times. Not that he was counting.

It changed things, too. Not in a bad way necessarily, but they...their relationship or whatever was definitely different, though Ichigo guessed only time would tell where that would lead.

Overall, it was going pretty well, though. Rukia didn't seem to mind that he mostly had no idea what he was doing and seemed to realize it was something he'd really rather her not tease him about. In fact, she seemed to enjoy bossing him around, surprise, surprise, and at the moment Ichigo wasn't too fired up about stopping her. He'll get her in the end, of course, but he was slowly biding his time until the opportune moment. And then Rukia won't know what hit her.

Ichigo realized that thoughts like these probably meant that Rukia's crazy was catching (possibly some kind of venereal disease that condoms were useless against?) But until he started flossing in bed or whatever, he decided he just didn't care.

"You're such a bastard," Rukia mumbled into his shoulder later, throwing an arm over his chest and pressing her mouth clumsily against his collar bone. She stroked the pads of her fingers lightly over his scars absentmindedly.

"Gnargh," Ichigo said, really significantly less coherent than she was. He'd feel bad about this, and probably will later, but that would involve a lot more brain power than he currently has at his disposal.

"Jerk," Rukia continued and sagged against him, breath a rapid puff against his chest. For someone to who physical contact was pretty foreign, Ichigo wondered at how easy it was to have her there like this, to loop an arm around her waist, thumb brushing against the bottom of her left breast, and pull her closer.

"What'd I do this time?" he asked shakily. He was more than aware it was what he _didn't _do, but Rukia'd _said_ it was fine, that she didn't mind-

"I'm going to have to redo my nail polish," Rukia moaned without opening her eyes, with a listless kick of her feet. "See?"

Ichigo squinted down at her toes. They looked fine as far as he could tell, though the paint had obviously smudged on her left big toe.

"I think you might have to amputate," he said sarcastically, cupping her shoulder with his hand bracingly.

"Oh, fuck you," Rukia said, but there was laughter in her voice. "Whoops, already did that."

"Are you going to check it off your list?"

"That would imply I'm _done_ fucking you," Rukia said baldly and Ichigo cursed the warm flush that spread through him at her words, because _really_, it wasn't like she hadn't said _and_ done worse.

He dozed off a bit, Rukia a warm comforting presence against him, and then sighed at the clock when he woke.

"Hey," he elbowed Rukia, who gave an annoyed squawk. "I gotta go. You're going to have to pick up Kito soon, too."

Rukia sighed and sat up, her hair a complete mess. "You got a lot of homework?" she asked, shoving the sheets down and getting out of bed to grab her clothes.

"Yeah, they're really piling it on this year," Ichigo sighed, pulling on his boxers. Rukia located her underwear and skirt, and this was another weird part that no one talked about. They were _getting dressed in the same room_. It was weirdly domestic.

"Have you seen my bra?" Rukia asked, as if she could read his mind. He gave her a suspicious look, for good measure, but she just looked at him expectantly. Ichigo glanced around while he buttoned up his shirt. It (beige and boring) was on the floor next to his belt and he tossed it to her without a thought.

He managed to extricate himself from her apartment fifteen minutes later, after some surprisingly intense kissing up against Rukia's door and headed back across the street, hoping no one at home (oh, god, his _father_) noticed the hickies.

Soon it was September and school started up again. Ichigo ended up quitting his part-time job as a dishwasher and started working for the insane Unagiya Ikumi. Who refused to change the name of her weird business despite all the confused customers looking for eel. But it paid better, so what the hell, right?

In the meantime, Rukia started completely freaking out over finding a good and economical preschool for Kito to attend in the spring and Ichigo responded by sneakily depositing parts of his paycheck into her bank account and hoping that she wouldn't notice. He knew Rukia would be furious if she knew, but it wasn't like he was doing anything important with the money and he wanted Kito to be able to go to a good preschool too. Besides, Renji approved. Ichigo supposed there were worse things than bonding with his girlfriend's best friend over the best ways to give her their money. It was, however, a bit awkward when Renji came over for New Years' again and they had to pretend they hadn't had any contact besides yelling greetings at each other through the phone whenever Rukia called Renji for one of their hours long conversations.

"God, this sake sucks," Rukia complained at two hours to the new year, resting her forehead on the kitchen table. "I really want to be drunk right now, but it is not happening if we don't get something better."

"Eh, it's not that bad," Renji told her, taking a swig of what Ichigo had been told many times was truly awful sake, leaning back in his chair with only two legs on the floor. "Oh, stop looking at me like that, Kurosaki. Just because you're a prude, doesn't mean we all have to be."

"I am _not_ a prude," Ichigo complained, though only halfheartedly, as he had been hearing the same thing from well, _everyone in his life ever_ for years. "It's _illegal_."

"You know what else's illegal?" Rukia looked up at him with a filthy grin that had never led to any good. "Screwing twenty-one year olds."

"Hey!" Ichigo protested, feeling his face redden. "That's...that's private!"

"Uh, dude," Renji informed him with a raised eyebrow. "You do realize she told me, like, months ago, right?"

"_You-!_"

"Oh, calm your tits down," Rukia said with a dismissive hand wave, because she always said extremely inappropriate things while drunk. "You're going to wake Kito and I just got him asleep."

Renji almost fell out of his chair laughing and Ichigo began to plot secret revenge involving Rukia's germ infested bunny shaped sponges and the sparklers they'd gotten for later that night.

"Oh, I've missed you," Renji said once he managed to get control of himself again. "And stop looking like that, Ichigo. You're supposed to be less uptight now that Rukia's popped your cherry."

Ichigo spluttered feebly while Rukia actually _took a bow_.

"I hate you both," he announced, crossing his arms over his chest, but he mostly didn't mean it. Mostly.

"You have no right to talk," Rukia insisted, taking another shot and grimacing exaggeratedly. "Ugh, that's disgusting. You-You're the one who has _cast me aside_ for another woman!"

"Oh, c'mon not this agai-"

"Shhh," Renji said, righting his chair and lunging forward to clap his hand over Ichigo's mouth. "Let the woman speak!"

"It's really so tragic," Rukia said sadly, really getting far too into it. "I've come to realize that you have a _problem_, Ichigo. This addiction to single mothers is really quite unhealthy. But, alas, he pines nonetheless."

"She's my boss and I do _not-_she's at least _thirty_!" Ichigo tried to get out from under Renji's palm and Rukia's grin just widened before she schooled her expression into quiet perseverance in the face of hardship.

"I just cannot compete with her any longer," she wailed dramatically, wiping a fake tear from her eye. "He has finally found a woman even more decrypt in her old age than I-"

At this point Renji was shaking so hard with silent laughter that Ichigo was able to wrench his hand away from his mouth.

"Oh, shut up!" he scowled and grabbed away the sake. "No more alcohol for you."

"Hey, no!" Rukia complained, and it degenerated into pointless arguing and really obnoxious snickering from Renji from there on out.

But despite his protestations, Ichigo really was happy. He had most of everything he's ever wanted. He was getting a hang of the whole sex thing, school was okay, and his friends were in their usual good cheer. Rukia and Kito were doing well, his little sisters were all set for middle school next year, his dad and Yuzu still have not appeared to notice that Ichigo's in a serious relationship with a woman four a half years older than him from the apartment building across the street and Karin had gotten over it. Keigo would not shut up about wanting to meeting the "famous Kuchiki Rukia," but that would only happen over _Ichigo's dead body_, so he didn't worry about it too much.

But then, while Ichigo was halfway through the finals of his second year of high school, disaster, quite literally, struck.

* * *

It happened, without warning, on a cloudy morning in mid-March. It wasn't particularly nice outside, but the weather promised that the clouds would clear away later in the afternoon, and because the cherry blossoms came out early in Kyushu, it definitely felt more like spring than this time of year normally did for Rukia. She was hurrying as usual, getting a snack for Kito out of the kitchen cupboard, just about to run out the door to drop him off at daycare before heading to work.

And then the tremors started.

Despite having experienced a couple minor earthquakes while she was living in Osaka, Rukia didn't actually realize what it was for a second. And even when she did, she didn't do anything, some part of her assuming it would pass quickly. But it didn't.

The dishes started to rattle loudly in her cupboards and Rukia thought: _"Oh, no."_

"Rukia!" her son yelled over the din, fear plain in his voice.

Rukia whirled around, the floor starting to shake violently under her feet, the snack bar still clenched tightly in her hand. Kito was standing, his truck on the floor forgotten, holding onto the bookshelf for balance, eyes wide with fear.

"Rukia, what's-" he started, voice high and uncertain.

"DON'T!" Rukia shouted, but it was too late, the tremors were just getting worse and the bookshelf started to teeter.

She lunged for him, throwing herself over him just before the world ripped itself apart.

Rukia's back hurt. Her head too, she realized belatedly. She didn't think she'd passed out, but it was hard to tell. There was a book on her face and she shifted painfully so that it fell, not just to the floor though, but down, down, down a large hole in her apartment floor. Rukia was trapped under the bookshelf, but she could make out torn re-bars, the sounds of broken pipes spewing water and probably gas around her, chunks of brick scattered around the room, making it near unrecognizable.

"-kia, Rukia! Rukia!"

"Kito," she whispered, trying to look down at him, held protectively underneath her. "Kito!"

"Rukia!" he sobbed and Rukia forced her arms to move, but she could only get one free, clutching at him and running her hand up and down his small body.

"Are you hurt, baby?" she asked frantically, voice tight and strange even to her own ears. "Are you alright?!"

"What's going on?" Kito wailed. "I don't like this!"

"Kito, are you hurt?" Rukia almost screamed and he quieted immediately at the fear in her voice.

"I'm okay," he whispered, trembling.

"Okay," Rukia said, relief flooding through her and she founds she had to hold herself back from sobbing, breaking down completely here and now. "Okay."

She took a deep breath and clutched him to her. If anything ever happened to him, if she hadn't made it in time...

"Rukia?" Kito whispered and Rukia let out a horrible choking sound before forcing herself to _focus. _

"We're going to be okay," she said forcefully, wishing she could wipe away the tears on her cheek to make it look more effective.

The hole next to her head was large, probably two meters in circumference, so she tried to move the other way, but agony screamed through her body and Rukia let out a shout of pain as her movement only served to press the bookshelf further into her back. Something wet slid down her back and for a second Rukia thought she might throw up.

She didn't though and, stroked the back of Kito's head softly as he whimpered.

"S'okay," she said tightly, before gritting her teeth and kicking out with her feet. This time the bookshelf did budge, but only a bit and she bit back a scream of frustration and pain.

Suddenly the entire building shook again and to Rukia's horror, more debris fell from the ceiling and presumably the upper floor. Something slammed into the bookshelf from above and Rukia grabbed Kito closer and curled around him as best as she could. Kito screamed into her shoulder and for a second Rukia thought, _"This is it, this how I'm going to die, right here under this stupid bookshelf_._" _She pulled Kito even closer, hoping that somehow she could shield him well enough with her body, even if she wasn't alive anymo-

The shaking stopped though and Rukia gasped for breath, while Kito began to sob softly into her shoulder. It gave her an idea though and she twisted her head as best she could towards the exit.

"HEY!" she screamed, voice horrible and broken sounding. "HELP! In here!"

For a second she thought she heard someone respond, her heart jumping in her chest, but then she realized what she was hearing was other people in her apartment building. All calling for help too.

"I wanna get out," Kito was saying, beginning to struggle in her arms. "Rukia, Rukia, I want to get out! I wanna go home!"

_"This _is_ home_," Rukia thought hysterically and tried not to laugh like a complete crazy person.

"It's okay," she said, stroking his hair as best she could with her free hand. The other hand was trapped under the shelf, but she could still feel it. She was, ridiculously, still clutching the snack bar with it. "It's okay, honey, we're all going to be okay. They're going to come and get us, alright? The firefighters and the police from downtown, do you remember when Ichigo showed you the police station? Don't worry, sweetheart, we can go home soon..."

She didn't even know what she was saying anymore, voice blurring together in a senseless mix of soothing and terror.

Rukia wondered how long they could survive stuck here.

...No. Absolutely not. This was not happening. Rukia refused to let something so _stupid_ kill her. She was _not_ going to die in this crappy apartment, under this cheap, sorry excuse for a bookshelf she found next to the dumpster last year.

She kicked out furiously with her feet, wiggling down even further under the shelf until her bare feet come in contact with a shelf.

"Right," Rukia snarled, shoving with her back and legs with as much strength as she could muster. The bookshelf began to move and Rukia forced herself not to scream in pain as it dug into her back. Kito was still sobbing, but for once Rukia ignored it and kicked as hard as she could. Suddenly she remembered her other hand and to her relief it came free from under a pile of child psychology books. She was almost there, just a few more inches and they'd be free, but her next kick sent the shelf slamming into the still standing wall, firm and immovable.

Rukia screamed in frustration, a horrible sound tearing from her throat and sagged against the floor, arms shaking with the effort of not crushing Kito.

"Rukia," Kito cried, and Rukia felt more of what was probably blood run down her back. Bile filled her throat and she thought, quite clearly: _"Fuck this."_

In a feat only possible by fear and adrenaline, Rukia lashed out with both hands and feet, twisting around to shove the bookshelf off her and send it crashing into the hole in her apartment floor.

Breathing heavily, Rukia let out a sob of pain as she fell onto her injured back, staring wildly up at the cracked ceiling.

"Rukia!" Kito screamed, getting to his knees next to her and clinging to her arm.

Rukia didn't want to move. She wanted to stay here, to pass out, to make the pain go away. But the ceiling looked dangerously unstable and Rukia knew enough about aftershocks to know that she had to get out of the building.

Slowly, agony lacing itself up her back with every movement, Rukia forced herself to roll onto her stomach again. She heard the sound of sirens outside, people yelling both inside and outside the building, but even more than that she heard the telltale hiss of escaping gas and knew she had to move fast. One spark would spread disaster and with the way pieces of the building kept crashing down, Rukia knew she didn't have much time.

"I'm...okay," she gritted out and placed both of her hands, one still holding the stupid bar against the dust-covered floor and pushed herself onto her knees.

Pain screamed though her, and Rukia let out a surprised shout at just how intense it was. She wavered, but managed to get onto her hands and knees, wincing as she knelt on tiny pieces of brick that were scattered just about everywhere.

"Stand up," she ordered, both to herself and Kito. "Kito, stand up!"

He did with a little hiccup of shock, eyes and cheeks wet and reddened. His nose was running egregiously and even in her state Rukia had to suppress the urge to wipe at it with a handkerchief.

Now came the hard part. Rukia closed her eyes and slowly straightened up, tears squeezing out of her eyes as she tried for Kito's sake not to scream. She almost fell over, but managed to kneel without collapsing. She had to stop to catch her breath and realized she was still holding onto the snack bar. With a hysterical giggle, she threw it down into the hole and then hissed in pain as the motion affected her back more than she thought it would.

"Okay," she whispered, leaning her head back and breathing heavily. "_Okay_."

Her legs shaking violently, Rukia brought one forward, almost losing her balance as least twice, placing her foot flat against the floor. It was almost ridiculous how much this tiny motion, a motion Rukia had done thousands of times in the past was so painful and _hard_. Her back couldn't even be that bad, Rukia had yet to actually _see_ any blood, which meant it couldn't have been bleeding particularly hard. She'd been through _childbirth_, this, this should be nothing.

It was almost funny how much that thought helped, and Rukia somehow managed to get to her feet without fainting, though her eye sight had gone all blurry.

She blinked several times and then held down her scraped raw hand to where she thought Kito was.

"C'mon," she told him. "I can't...I can't carry you."

Kito grabbed at it and they stumbled out of the room, Rukia feeling more than a little ridiculous having to unlock her door to get out into the hallway.

The hallway was just about as unrecognizable as their apartment. Parts of the ceiling had caved in, metal beams and plaster covering the floor and Rukia's feet were bloody within minutes. She couldn't carry Kito, so she forced him to walk on her feet when there wasn't any safe ground to step on, even though he started to cry again after she stepped on a nail that caused her left foot to ooze bloody trails in their wake.

Rukia had prepared herself for the possibility that the stairwell had caved in, but to her relief it was surprisingly clear. She and Kito limped silently down and Rukia wondered how bad it was. She hadn't seen anyone else yet, but she'd had the late shift today and it was probably almost eleven now. Most people probably weren't home.

As if to disagree, a man's loud yell came from though the walls above her and Rukia shivered, trying yet again to resist the urge to throw up. Kito jumped and Rukia had to reach down and steady him, wincing as the movement irritated her back. They were just about to reach the stairwell door, when, as if on cue, the door burst open and men in bright orange and blue uniforms crowded in. Kito screamed and clung to her, but Rukia was too tired to even reassure him it was fine and didn't protest as they were lead out of the stairwell. She couldn't answer their questions, some part of her registered that she was probably in shock, and she stared blankly ahead of her as they were bustled out of the building.

They were people everywhere outside, police and rescue workers and others crowded all around the building. Rukia vaguely realized that this probably meant that the earthquake wasn't that bad after all and this was the only building that had collapsed. Otherwise they'd all probably have better things to do.

Her stomach gave way then and she bent over to throw her breakfast up over the boots of a rescue worker. She tried to apologize, but she was in so much pain and Kito was crying and there were so many people-God, was that a satellite dish?-and Rukia suddenly thought of Byakuya seeing this on TV and couldn't decide whether to laugh or sob.

She found herself sitting in the back an ambulance a couple minutes later, Kito clinging to her dangling leg and a paramedic dabbing at the wound on her back. He'd cut the gray cloth of her uniform and her bra out of the way without asking and Rukia'd wanted to protest, but most of her was still too dazed to comprehend it.

Her apartment was gone. All her things...she hadn't even thought to try and get them out. Her wallet, her cell phone, her clothes and shoes...they were all gone. Even if some were salvageable, she still didn't have any place to go. Would she get her deposit back, Rukia wondered inanely, completely numb to the paramedic's voice telling her that she'd have to get stitches.

God, what was she going to do? She didn't have insurance, she'd have to replace everything out of her own pocket and that would take most of the money she'd managed to save away for Kito's preschool. Even the copay for the emergency room she'd have to go to to get stitches would be brutal.

"Rukia!" Kito said worriedly and she realized that tears were dripping down her cheeks. Slightly surprised, Rukia rubbed at them with curious fingers.

"Please keep still, ma'am!" the paramedic cautioned her.

"M'okay," Rukia told Kito as gently as possible. She patted him on the head with her bloody hand, careful to keep still so the paramedic wouldn't complain again.

"I want to go home," Kito whimpered and Rukia closed her eyes against a twinge of pain in her back.

"Yeah, me too," Rukia whispered. Her hand tightened in his hair and she was surprised at how much hair he had. Maybe it was time for another haircut.

There was a loud gasp from the crowd and Rukia heard yelling. She couldn't see through the throng of people still surrounding her apartment building, but the implication was clear. The paramedic stopped dabbing at her back and Rukia caught glimpses of police clearing civilians out of the way, rescue workers exiting the building with people on stretchers. Even from her bad vantage point Rukia could see the blood and she reached down to jerk Kito's head away.

"Go!" she told the paramedic hoarsely, as his two teammates grabbed supplies and ran toward the other victims.

He blinked uncertainly. "I should-"

"I'm fine, go!" Rukia told him and felt no small amount of relief as he pelted away. She sagged against the metal door and suddenly felt very, very lucky.

They brought the victims out through the crowd, an elderly man with his left arm crushed from falling debris, a young woman who struggled to breath from a nasty cut on her throat and Rukia limped out of way so the ambulance could take them to the hospital. She kept her hand over Kito's eyes so he couldn't see their horrific injuries and pulled him to sit down on the curb, forced to hold the front of her uniform to her chest so it didn't fall down.

A couple people asked her if she needed help, but Rukia shook them off. She'd go to the hospital later, but right now there were people who needed medical attention far more than she did. She just needed to stop, let her heart rate slow down to a normal rate, to take in what had happened, to her, to Kito, to their home, otherwise she feared she might have a complete mental breakdown. She was not sure how long she just sat there, gripping Kito tightly and shaking.

"RUKIA!"

Rukia opened her eyes to see Ichigo shoving his way through the crowd, still in his high school uniform and as white as a sheet.

"Oh," she said, choking on the word. Desperation rose up in her and she pushed herself off the curb. "Ichig-"

Ichigo strode toward her with purpose, cupped her face with both hands and kissed her hard, right out in the open. Rukia let her eyes slide shut and gripped his shoulders painfully hard, trembling violently under his hands.

"Fuck," Ichigo said once they parted, pressing his forehead to hers. He looked more terrified than Rukia had ever seen him. "You...I thought...why the _fuck_ aren't you picking up your cell phone?!"

"It's still inside," Rukia mumbled, taking deep shaky breaths. She pushed as close to him as she could and pressed her face into his shoulder, and _God_, she needed this, just to be close like this with him. She and Kito had almost just _died_, her home was destroyed, her back _ached_, and she just needed to be held right now until she could stop the crashing sound of brick and plaster from ringing in her ears.

"I love you," she whispered, because while Ichigo'd said it before, she never had, and she figured it was probably about time, with the almost dying and everything.

"You," Ichigo gasps, hands on her face gripping so hard that it hurt. He was shaking violently, like he'd been doused with cold water. "Why did you...Fuck, I thought- _fuck_, Rukia. _Fuck_!"

Rukia pulled back and stared at him. He let his head fall down onto her shoulder and Rukia was about to point out that _she_ was the one who'd just almost been crushed to death in an earthquake when she suddenly remembered Ichigo's mother.

"Oh," she said softly and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh, _Ichigo_, I'm fine. Baby, I promise, I'm okay...It's okay, Ichigo, we're okay..."

Ichigo just gripped her back hard and shook in her arms. She didn't mind; it was somehow a relief to comfort someone else, made it easier for her to be strong. A couple people were looking at them, but Rukia ignored them and stroked her fingers through Ichigo's hair comfortingly, even though her back was killing her.

"Ichigo," Kito said softly, and Ichigo straightened, wiping his eyes furiously.

"Hey," he said with a tremulous smile, trying to regain his composure. "You okay, kid?"

Kito wailed loudly and threw himself at him. Ichigo crouched down to meet him and pull her son into his arms. Kito didn't seem to have any tears left, and silently held onto Ichigo like a lifeline.

"Hey, hey, hey," Ichigo said softly. "You're alright. It's okay, you're alright."

He looked up at Rukia and frowned. "Your shirt..."

Rukia realized her uniform was slipping down again and pulled it up with her cut hands. "It...they had to cut it off-"

Ichigo stood, picking up Kito and taking him with him. Rukia was suddenly so grateful because that was what Kito really needed right now and she couldn't do it herself.

"Oh, my God," Ichigo said, looking at her back. Before he could say anything more, a loud rumbling sound filled the air and a huge piece of her apartment building crumbled to the ground in an explosion of dust. A loud gasp from the crowd was soon drowned out by more yelling from the rescue workers and sirens. Rukia felt her knees buckle dangerously, and Ichigo grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.

"What-?"

"The bookshelf fell on me," Rukia muttered, wanting nothing more than to go to sleep right this very second. "The paramedic said I needed stitches, but then they needed the ambulance for people who were really hurt, so I-"

"_You're_ really hurt," Ichigo said furiously and then put his hand gently around her waist, Kito still in his other arm. "C'mon, I'm taking you to the hospital."

Rukia wasn't sure how exactly they got to the hospital, because half the street was backed up, but somehow they got to a bus and the next thing she knew they were sitting in a waiting room, doctors and nurses running around and yelling incomprehensible things. They had to wait for a long time, to Ichigo's fury, and when Rukia finally got into a room he had nearly yelled himself hoarse. Getting stitches hurt a lot more than she thought it would, and halfway through Rukia's body just decided to screw it and everything went blissfully blank.

**A/N: So, yeah, I lied. I thought this was going to be the last chapter, but it got too long so I decided to split in two for better flow. On the bright side, that means I've actually written everything but the epilogue so the next chapter should be out soon!**

** I had WAY too much fun writing the awkwardness in the first part. Seriously, the gleeful grin on my face would probably have terrified you. The funny part is that I usually have really bad second-hand embarrassment. Apparently that does not extend to inflicting it on other people, who knew? I should also probably say at this point that I know nothing about earthquakes, so the whole second half of this chapter is probably grossly inaccurate. Sorry about that.**

** Anyway, please review!**


	13. Prognosis

Chapter Thirteen-

Rukia had the strangest look on her face when Ichigo went to visit her at the hospital two days later. He was relieved to see she had a little more color in her face and she was sitting up in bed, Kito curled up in a small ball by her side. Initially they'd been afraid Kito wouldn't be able to stay with her, but the small Naruki City Hospital in the next town over had been so overwhelmed by Rukia's apartment building collapse that no one had said anything. Though it was probably just as well that Rukia was scheduled to check out later that day.

She was frowning down at a piece of paper in her hands and Ichigo felt a twinge of annoyance go through him.

"You haven't even checked out yet and they've _already_ given you the bill?" he asked angrily and Rukia looked up at him in surprise.

"Well, hello to you too," she said mildly.

"Ichigo!" Kito shouted happily and clambered over to latch on to him. He'd been even more clingy than usual since the cave-in and Ichigo was worried about the long-term effects. He'd suggest maybe Kito should see a child psychologist, but it was too soon and he had no idea how Rukia would take that.

"Hey, be careful of your mom, she's still recovering," Ichigo told him, sitting down at the chair next to Rukia's bed and pulling Kito into his lap without much thought.

"Are you still suspended?" Rukia asked him, fidgeting with the rough blanket drawn up to her waist with bandaged hands. She looked so small in her too-big hospital gown and there were still dark circles under her eyes. Ichigo wondered if she'd been having the same nightmares he had.

"No, the principal changed his mind," Ichigo said casually, as if he didn't care. He did though, and when the school had threatened suspension after he ran off after the earthquake, in violation of Ochi-sensei's explicit instructions, he'd actually been afraid of what the black mark would do to his transcript. Ichigo'd been in a lot of fights, sure, but he'd never been stupid enough to get caught before, and if he never had to sit in the same room as the school principal, Ochi-sensei, and his father, discussing the "severity of his actions" it'd still be too soon.

He didn't regret it though. It wasn't like he'd had a choice. He'd been able to call his dad and his sisters right after the quake to make sure they were okay, but Rukia's cellphone had gone straight to voice-mail. Most likely because it had been _crushed_ under her building. She'd been sitting on the street when he'd found her, in shock, back, hands, feet, and knees bleeding and everyone had been too busy staring at the spectacle to _help her_. It made him so angry even thinking about it that he wanted to...

"I'm pretty much screwed if I so much put a toe out of line until I graduate though," Ichigo sighed and adjusted Kito in his lap. "What's the damage?"

Rukia exhaled softly and placed the paper on her lap, smoothing it out carefully.

"Nothing."

Ichigo frowned. "Nothing? Your insurance...but I there's still the copay and not to mention-"

"It's already been paid."

She didn't sound happy about it though and Ichigo immediately knew why. It wasn't that he'd rationally made the connection, that Rukia couldn't have paid for it, nor Renji, but the uncomfortable way she held her shoulders and the distant look in her eyes could only mean one thing. Kuchiki Byakuya.

"What does he want?" he asked, feeling himself go cold.

Rukia gave him a strange look. "What do you...nothing. He hasn't contacted me or anything."

Ichigo swallowed and tightened his arms around Kito unconsciously, causing him to give let out a squawk. "Do you think he will?"

Rukia shrugged her shoulders and looked back down at her lap. "I don't know. But I think...I think I should...I think I've been putting it off too long. Dealing with him, I mean."

She raised her eyes from the paper and the resolve in her eyes was clear.

"You sure it's a good idea?" Ichigo asked, even though he already knew her answer.

"It's been a year and a half since he came here," she replied, and had it really been that long? It sure didn't seem like it. "I always knew I'd have to deal with him sometime. I owe him that much. And it seems like the opportune moment now that I don't actually have anywhere else to go."

"That's not true, you could-!" Ichigo started vehemently, before realizing the idea only sounded good in his head. "I mean, I could ask..."  
Rukia raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I have seen your house, Ichigo. In fact, I have become quite familiar with it over the last year, specifically your bedroom." Ichigo felt the back of his neck turn red. "Where am I supposed to sleep, your closet?"

"Alright, it was a bad idea," Ichigo snapped. "It's just...what if he..."

What if Rukia went and didn't come back? Kuchiki Byakuya had a bazillion yen, who knew what you could get away with with that kind of money?

"What are you talking about?" Kito asked, squirming in his arms, looking between Ichigo and Rukia in confusion.

"We're going to stay with Renji for a while, in Osaka," Rukia explained, smiling at him and then glanced up at Ichigo. "He offered, just until I get back on my feet. The city said they'd contact me when they figure out if any of my stuff can be salvaged, but that could be weeks from now, so..."

"Right," Ichigo said tightly, trying not to overreact and say something he'd regret. Mostly how Kuchiki Byakuya was an asshole who didn't deserve a second of her time.

"Ichigo," Rukia said and he glanced up to see an intensely serious look on her face. "Come here."

He blinked at her. "Err...what?"

"Come here," Rukia repeated, just as seriously, dark eyes giving no hint of her intentions.

Ichigo lifted Kito off his lap and stood, taking a step to the edge of Rukia's bed. He tried, and probably failed, to keep the suspicious look off his face.

Rukia reached up and grabbed his tie, pulling him down so hard Ichigo almost lost his balance and fell on top of her with a surprised yell. She pressed her forehead against his and said, only a little terrifyingly: "I'm _coming_ back."

"Oh, my God, be careful," Ichigo hissed, eyeing her bandaged hand. He couldn't quite work up any anger though, something calming about the feel of her skin against his, her harsh words after two days of coming to the realization of just how close Rukia came to death. Three people had died in the cave-in and it could have just as easily been her and Kito.

"I'm coming back," Rukia repeated, a little more gently this time.

"Yeah?" Ichigo muttered and reached up to tuck a piece hair behind her right ear. "Osaka...it's not like here, you know. You could-"

"Don't be an idiot," Rukia told him and turned her face to the side to kiss the back of his hand. Ichigo closed his eyes at the feel of her lips. "I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to come back, okay?"

Ichigo pulled her forward by the shoulders and kissed her. It felt like it'd been years, instead of two days, and shit, he was really in trouble, wasn't he?

Rukia slid her hand down his chest, warmth blossoming where her fingers had been even through his shirt. He canted his head sideways, running a hand carefully down her side to her waist, leaning against the mattress. Rukia wrapped her arms around his neck and there was a high-pitched noise of disgust from behind him.

Ichigo jerked back, blushing horrifically to see Kito looking unimpressed at Ichigo sticking his tongue down his mother's throat.

"Eww," he said. "Stop that. Ichigo, I want ice cream."

"Uhh," Rukia said, who Ichigo was pleased to see was even more flustered than he was. "That's...well...you should probably..."

"Don't hurt yourself," Ichigo told her smugly and then bought the poor kid ice cream, because it was the least he could do.

He'd thought that was the end of his humiliation, at least for the foreseeable future, but after Rukia had gotten checked out and went to stay at a friend from her work's place for the night before she flew to Osaka the next day, Ichigo's father had to ruin it.

"Your poor father!" he wailed and crap, he was talking in third-person, that never ended well. "He never sees his good-for-nothing son anymore! First he is almost suspended from school and then he disappears for hours at a time, with no-"

"Oh, shut up!" Ichigo rolled his eyes and threw a rolled up newspaper lying on the table in his general direction. "You never cared before, so stop complaining-"

"Oh, Masaki!" his father bemoaned, throwing his hands in the air toward that _ridiculous _picture. "What would you think of the delinquent your son has becom-"

"Alright, I'm out of here," Ichigo said, grabbing his plate of curry to Yuzu's displeasure and heading for the stairs.

"Nii-san, don't-Otou-san, just leave him alone!" she complained, putting her hands on her hips over her lacy apron."Why do you always do this?"

"I'm afraid it is my duty, my daughter!" his father boomed jovially, obviously not bothered at all by his own ridiculousness and Ichigo rolled his eyes as he exited the kitchen.

"Oh, Ichigo," he added, when Ichigo was halfway up the stairs, sounding suddenly extremely serious. "I expect that you'll invite that lovely young women from across the street over to dinner. How about next week?"

Ichigo froze mid-step and almost dropped his dinner.

_Shit._

* * *

Rukia fingers were going numb from gripping the armrest of her chair. She had been waiting for a long time, almost an hour by the sleek metal hand of the clock directly above the desk of Byakuya's secretary. Kito was bored too, idly playing with the key chain on her purse and she was honestly surprised he hadn't rebelled at the long wait. At least he seemed to be impervious to the stares that the rest of the bustling building was giving them. Even Byakuya's secretary had looked scathingly down at Rukia's plain dress and her three year old son. The office ladies seemed more forgiving, some even smiling at Kito as they passed, and Rukia felt a wave of nostalgia at their navy blue jackets and pencil skirts. Hisana had been an O.L. here, almost twelve years ago now. She and Byakuya had always been trite, she thought to herself sadly. But she supposed it could have been worse, giving Byakuya's secretary a dirty look. If she'd been his secretary even ten year old Rukia would have died from the cliché of it all.

But reminiscing on her older sister's memory did nothing to quell the panic that was fermenting in her gut. Rukia was acutely aware that she did not want to be here. She'd hated this place from the start and sitting here now with Kito had no effect on those feelings. And Renji's worried texting, while undoubtedly well-meaning, was just exacerbating her already frayed nerves. She had no idea what she was going to say, and every instinct was screaming that she leave and get as far away from this place as she possibly could.

"Kuchiki-sama will see you now," Byakuya's secretary said and Rukia blinked in surprise, so absorbed in thought she had not noticed the clacking approach of her high heels.

Rukia squared her shoulders and stood, putting on her best unconcerned face, despite the clamminess of her hands.

"Come now, Kito," she said calmly and took a hold of his hand, pulling him to his feet.

"What are we doing here?" Kito whined for the hundredth time, but Rukia didn't answer him this time and merely shushed him as they entered Byakuya's office.

Rukia was not a child anymore. She was twenty-two years old, and the last four years of her life had caused her to grow up more harshly than she ever could have imagined in her adolescence spent resenting Byakuya and finding ways to defy him. She was a mother now, had a whole another life that didn't involve Byakuya, and however things turned out today, she would eventually be fine.

Byakuya's office was exactly the same as she remembered it. Large, blank, and mostly empty. He had some bland pictures of nature scenery on the wall that Rukia very much doubted he had picked out himself, a leather couch, two chairs in front of his desk, and a spectacular view of the Osaka skyline. Byakuya was sitting, perfectly poised in his desk chair, eyes on his computer screen rather than her when they entered the room and Rukia had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the melodrama of it all.

"Rukia," he said calmly, turning his attention to her and giving her a brief once over.

"Oni-san," Rukia replied with as little emotion in her voice as possible. Kito squinted at Byakuya from beside her, obviously not recognizing him from all those months ago, but thankfully kept his mouth shut.

"And what is the purpose of this visit?" Byakuya asked coolly, tapping his fingers slowly against the top of his desk. She supposed it was a valid question considering the last time they'd met she'd told him she never wanted to see him again.

Rukia tightened her grip on Kito's hand, enough so he glanced up at her in confusion.

"Thank you for covering my medical costs," Rukia said and bowed deeply. Years ago she would have seen this as a concession, a concession she would have been unwilling to make, but now...she was so tired of this now. She wanted it over, and pride would only get in the way.

Byakua didn't say anything, and when she finally raised her head, he had an odd look on his face. Rukia didn't know what it meant, but that wasn't exactly anything new. She'd never understood him, probably one of the main reasons they'd never gotten along.

"They were not exorbitant," he finally replied and Rukia was unsure if that was meant to be modesty or a dismissal. Or both?

"I would have had a hard time with them," Rukia said, opting for honesty, though only mostly because she didn't know what else to say.

Byakuya didn't seem to have an answer for that, looking at her with inscrutable eyes. Rukia forced herself to walk forward through his large office to stand in front of his desk, the ticking of the clock on the wall seeming unnaturally loud.

Byakuya's eyes dropped down to Kito and her son blinked at him without any sign of uncertainty or apprehension.

"You may sit," he said after a long pause and Rukia did, helping Kito up into the chair on the right first.

"I should apologize..." Rukia said carefully, figuring she might as well get all her cards on the table. "For how I behaved when we last met. It was unacceptable and I have no excuse."

Byakuya shifted in his seat, seeming to lean in closer towards her over the polished sheen of expensive wood.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked quietly, and somehow more honest than Rukia had ever seen him before.

A year ago, this question would have infuriated her. Hell, a month ago it would have. But there was something incredibly sobering about coming so close to death, and instead, Rukia felt a bizarre sort of pity for him, that he didn't know, that he honestly had no idea why she would prefer to run away from home for four years than admit she'd had a child out of wedlock.

"It was...easier to just go," she said haltingly, a wave of nausea rushing through her at the inadequacy of her response. "I always...You know we were never really...I'd always planned to, eventually."

"I see," Byakuya said shortly, a small frown pinching his face, but he really didn't.

That was okay though. Rukia knew that he wouldn't understand and at this point, she'd made her peace with it. They didn't have to understand each other to get along.

"I'm sorry," Rukia said, figuring that it was okay. She could take the blame, she would shoulder it if it could mend even the smallest part of the chasm between them because Hisana would not have wanted this for either of them. She unconsciously sat a little straighter in her chair and hoped she sounded sincere. "I should not have left like that. It was irresponsible of me and I'm sorry for the inconvenience I've caused you."

Byakuya looked shocked at this and Rukia had to quash down her annoyance. Why did he have to look at her like that? Couldn't he just throw her a bone and not make a bigger deal about this than it already was?

Kito shifted loudly in his seat and Rukia threw him a look that quieted him immediately. He didn't look very happy though and Rukia prayed he wouldn't interrupt them just yet.

"I do not think..." Byakuya said slowly and she turned back to him, trying to look as attentive as possible. "...that the blame lies solely with you."

Rukia stared, for the first time she'd entered the office, completely thrown.

"I do not think you will disagree when I say that I have been at fault in the past as well." Byakuya continued and Rukia felt her throat tighten.

What was he talking about? He didn't do this; Byakuya had never admitted he was wrong. _Never_. It was one of the undeniable truths of life, along with the fact that soba was far superior to udon, K-pop was never going to go away, and people from Tokyo were always pretentious assholes. Byakuya _did_ _not_ apologiz-

"And I am sorry for that," he finished, lacing his fingers together on the desk in front of him.

Rukia didn't know quite what to do. She frowned, opened her mouth, closed it, raised her hands slightly, put them down, furrowed her brow and-

"Rukia," came Kito's small voice from beside her, eyes wide with concern. "Why are you crying?"

She regained her composure, eventually. They talked for a long time after that, and eventually Kito got bored. Byakuya had his secretary take him outside and entertain him, something Rukia would normally be uncomfortable with, but she figured that it was probably fine considering how afraid of Byakuya all his employees were.

It wasn't...everything wasn't going to be fixed right away, and the cynical part of Rukia doubted that it would ever be. But it was a start and they'd desperately needed to start somewhere. It would take a long time-probably years-before they were something that even resembled functional, but...Rukia hoped Hisana would have understood. She could only try her best and the fact that Byakuya was trying too helped.

"You could visit," Rukia said cautiously, hours later, once she and Kito were about to leave. "I mean...once I find a new place to live."

"You are going back then?" Byakuya asked seriously and Rukia nodded.

"Karakura...it's kind of my life now," she said, as gently as possible and Kito pulled on her hand impatiently. "I've...it's important to me."

To her shock, Byakuya did not attempt to change her mind and merely nodded. He did not offer her money and because of this, Rukia scribbled her cell phone number down for him on a whim.

They parted amicably, Rukia offering him a brief, hesitant smile as she left his office, Kito trying to pull her toward the elevator so they could return to Renji's as soon as possible, and Rukia figured she could tell him about Ichigo next time.

A month later, Rukia was sitting on the wall across from Ichigo's high school, a bag of groceries in one hand, one leg crossed comfortably over the other. She'd been wearing a jacket, but she'd taken it off and put it in her bag because of the warm April sun and pleasant breeze. The bell rang and presently high school students in gray uniforms began to pour out of the gates, no small number of them giving her strange looks before running off to the mall or the local karaoke box or whatever high school kids did for fun these days. Rukia tapped her fingers against her thigh impatiently and adjusted her sky blue dress as a gust of wind ruffled her skirt. She grinned when she saw a familiar head of bright orange hair from her vantage point and waved jauntily. She could see Ichigo's eyeroll from all the way across the street.

"So, final year, huh?" Rukia said as he approached. "How was the entrance ceremony?"

"Boring as hell," Ichigo said dryly, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "You could've given me a little warning, you know. I would have met you at the airport."

"And spoil the surprise?" Rukia said with a melodramatic gasp, putting her hand over her heart. "Never. Also, I would never want to encourage truancy in a minor."

"Of course you wouldn't," Ichigo deadpanned, and ignored a group of classmates that Rukia recognized as some of his friends staring at them from next to the gate. "Where's Kito?"

"At Ise-san's," Rukia explained, hoping down from the wall. "She offered to watch him while I look for apartments this afternoon. Wanna come?"

Ichigo grinned and leaned down to kiss her, hands coming down to rest lightly on her shoulders. Rukia sighed into it, fisting his collar and _God_, how she'd missed him.

A loud wolf-whistle interrupted them and Ichigo whirled around furiously, face the color of a beet.

"Shut _up, _Keigo!" he yelled across the street with an extremely rude hand gesture. "And you too, Tatsuki!"

Rukia cackled and grabbed his hand, dragging him away before he could start a fight in front of his school gates and get suspended for real this time.

"So I was thinking maybe the complex near the library."

"I thought you said it was too expensive. Also, it's very...close."

"Ichigo, I am not choosing a new place to live based on your preference I stay as far away from your father as possible."

"If you'd met him _you'd understand_!"

"Then maybe I should meet him. He seems like a pretty laid-back guy. You really think he'd mind me stealing the innocence of his first born?"

"Actually, he'll probably be extremely pleased."

"...oh."

"Told you."

"Oh, shut up."

Despite Ichigo's best efforts, Kurosaki Isshin did eventually manage to get Rukia over for dinner with an extremely effective combination of flattery, blackmail, and bribery, involving half the people Ichigo knew. It was indeed a disaster and Ichigo and Rukia vowed to never speak of it again.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop Renji from somehow finding out and proceeding to make fun of them _forever_.

~End~

**A/N: Oh, my God, can you believe it? I have been working on this fic for more than **_**four years**_**. How did that happen?**

** Anyway, I'm kinda meh about the middle of this chapter. Byakuya is HARD. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HIM. I'd like there to have been more closure, but to be honest I just didn't see it realistically happening in one meeting. They'll get there though. **

** I just have to get the epilogue and then VRaSB is **_**done**_**. God, that's scary. **

** The epilogue will be a series of, I dunno, drabbles, I guess, set between two to nine years in the future. I'm also going to try different POVs than Rukia, Renji, or Ichigo's, which will be fun.**

** Anyway, credit for this chapter's readability goes to Resonance and D! Please review!**


End file.
